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