DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0126Z September 18, 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 and now central Pacific and extending inland over much
of the lower 48, southwestern and far south central Canada, northern
Canadian territories, 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 tip of Texas, the U.P. of Michigan, and southern Mexico. 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. Light smoke expanded into the central Pacific
Ocean this afternoon. An additional swath of light smoke was observed
moving through the Bahamas and the southern tip of the Florida peninsula
and extending into the Mexican Yucatan peninsula. An expanded area of
light smoke was also observed in central Canada and moving through the
central northern territories.
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.
JL
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