DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z September 17, 2020
SMOKE:
Huge Region Including the Eastern Pacific/Most of the Lower 48,
Southwestern Canada/Northern Mexico/the Atlantic East of the Mid-Atlantic
Region, the Northeast, and the Canadian Maritimes…
The large Western U.S. wildfires continued to burn and emit copious
amounts of smoke this morning. The result of these fires burning for
many days continues to be an expansive mass of smoke over portions
of the eastern Pacific and extending inland over much of the lower
48, southwestern and far south central Canada, northern Mexico, and
the Atlantic east of the Mid-Atlantic region, the Northeast, and the
Canadian Maritimes. The only relatively smoke free areas included much
of the Southeastern U.S., far southern Texas, and the U.P. of Michigan
along with the far northern portions of lower Michigan, Wisconsin,
and northeastern Minnesota. Dense smoke blanketed virtually all of the
Western U.S. with the exception of relatively thinner smoke over the
Southwestern U.S. The dense smoke also was present over Southwestern
Canada and extended eastward from that region and the Western U.S. across
the northern and central Rockies to the Northern and Central Plains. From
there, the smoke spread eastward over the rest of the Central U.S. before
curving a bit more to the northeast over the Ohio Valley and Northeast
and over far southeastern Canada before passing over the Atlantic east
of the Canadian Maritimes and south of Greenland.
DUST:
Areas of thin density Saharan dust were visible over the Caribbean south
of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico and to the east and northeast of those
islands over portions of the central, south central, and eastern Atlantic.
JS
THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF
SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED
FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE.
TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE
ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE
AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE
FIRE IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE:
JPEG: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS: ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO:
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov