DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z October 11, 2020
SMOKE:
United States, Northern Mexico, Southern and Southeastern Canada,
Western Atlantic...
Smoke from the ongoing wildfires burning in the Western U.S. continues
to be widespread though the overall coverage of the more dense smoke
appears to have lessened today as compared to the previous number of
days. Satellite imagery is still showing an expansive area of smoke
over portions of the U.S., southern and southeastern Canada, Northern
Mexico, and the western Atlantic off the coast of the northeastern
U.S. and southeastern Canada as well as the northern and western Gulf
of Mexico. However, portions of the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest,
the Southeast, the Middle Atlantic region, and the western Great Lakes
region are relatively smoke free. Thick smoke continues to spread to
the northeast from the larger wildfires in northern Colorado, southern
Wyoming, and northeastern Utah with remnant moderate density smoke
primarily from these fires visible out across parts of the Central and
Southern Plains. Farther to the west, cloudiness is interfering with smoke
detection though some thick smoke is still seen in between breaks in the
clouds over east central California near wildfires in that area. Remnant
moderate to perhaps thicker density smoke attributed generally to the
California wildfires was visible this afternoon and early evening across
central and eastern Montana, northwestern North Dakota, and extending
up over southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba.
North Dakota/Minnesota/South Central Canada…
Similar to yesterday, numerous seasonal/agricultural fires were detected
over northern and eastern North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota and the
southern portions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Many smoke plumes of
primarily thin density were also seen with these fires with the plumes
moving off to the northwest and some of the plumes merging to form larger
patches of smoke by late in the day.
DUST:
Washington…
Thin density blowing dust originated from an area in central Washington
during the afternoon and spread to the east and northeast.
Saharan dust is still visible over the eastern Atlantic off the western
coast of Africa.
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