DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 12, 2021
SMOKE:
Pacific off the West coast/Western and Central U.S./Great Lakes
region/Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region/Southeast/Southwestern Canada…
A very large mass of varying density smoke attributed to significant
wildfire activity in southern British Columbia of southwestern Canada and
the western U.S. was seen over southwestern Canada and much of the western
U.S. From the western U.S., the smoke extended to the east across the
Rockies and over the north central and central U.S. to the Great Lakes
region, the Ohio Valley, the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the
Southeast. Thick smoke was seen over southern British Columbia, most of
Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana, and northern Oregon. Another
batch of thick smoke covered northwestern Nevada, western Oregon, the
northern half of California, and offshore of the southern Oregon/northern
California coast. Moderately dense smoke was present in areas across
the Rockies to the central U.S. Another patch of moderately dense smoke
was visible over a portion of the Mid-Atlantic region and Northeast and
offshore of those locations over the nearby Atlantic.
Eastern Canada and Western/Central Atlantic...
Generally thin density smoke from the Canadian and western U.S. wildfires
continued to spread across eastern Canada and off the coast across the
Labrador Sea and southern Greenland and well out over the Atlantic
south and southeast of Greenland. Cloud cover over portions of this
region interfered with smoke detection and density information from
satellite imagery.
Area from far Northwestern Canada to South Central Canada...A broad area
of smoke possibly attributed to recent wildfire activity in northwestern
and western Canada and/or wildfire activity in Siberia was seen this
morning stretching from extreme northwestern Canada to the south and
southeast reaching the southern portions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba
and the southwest part of Ontario. The smoke may also be grazing far
northern Minnesota as well. While most of the smoke appeared to be of
thin density, the northern part over the northern Northwest Territories
was noticeably thicker.
Gulf of Alaska…
A swath of thin density smoke possibly linked to wildfire activity in
Siberia was visible spreading to the northeast across the Gulf of Alaska
and far south central Alaska though cloudiness in this area prevented
additional information on the extent of the smoke in satellite imagery.
DUST:
Puerto Rico/Eastern Caribbean...
A thin layer of Saharan dust shifted slightly farther to the west and now
was located in a north-south elongated band stretching from the coast
of northern South America across the eastern Caribbean and Puerto Rico
to around 30N latitude.
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