DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1740Z October 17, 2020
SMOKE: United States, Northwestern Mexico, Northern Gulf of Mexico, Western Atlantic, Eastern Pacific… The ongoing wildfires in California and on the border between Colorado and Wyoming have produced a layer of smoke from California on the west coast reaching into the western edges of Virginia and North Carolina. Wildfires in central California have produces a area of high density smoke around them with a small bad that is moving southeast along the boarder with Nevada. These fires have also produced a large area of Medium density smoke that stretches from northern California across the southern tip of Nevada, and continues to run through central Arizona with another area that stretches off into the eastern Pacific off the southern coast of California. The fires along the Colorado/Wyoming boarder have produced bands of of high density smoke in northeastern Colorado, with a larger swath of high density smoke covering western ans southern Kansas. Another area of of high density smoke covers small portions of southern Illinois/Indiana and a large potion of western Kentucky. A large area of medium density smoke starts in Eastern Colorado and stretches as far south as the Northern Texas boarder with Oklahoma. It also covers a large portion of Kansas thinning out in northeastern Kansas extending through northern Missouri where the swath gets larger again covering eastern Missouri southern Illinois/Indiana, Northern Tennessee, and Western Kentucky. The major wildfires combine to cover a large portion of the U.S. with light density smoke to include, covering most of California extending across the southern and central portions of Nevada and Arizona,the northern tip of Mexico, covering most of Texas and then stretches north across the central plains, the Mississippi Valley, and goes as far north as Michigan ending around the western edges of Virginia and North Carolina in the east. A large area of Light density smoke was observed of the coast of eastern Canada covering portions of Newfoundland and the eastern Atlantic ocean. Also of note is that much of more dense smoke is moving fast with weather systems across the area of interest. DUST: Tropical Atlantic Ocean and eastern Atlantic Ocean…. Saharan dust was observed emerging off the African coast today, extending to west of the Cabo Verde islands. Eglin 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