Saturday, August 21, 2021

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z August 21, 2021

SMOKE:
U.S./Canada/Atlantic/Pacific off the West Coast…
Wildfires in the Western U.S. and Southwestern Canada continued to
burn and were responsible for an extremely large area of smoke which
affected significant portions of the U.S. and Canada as well as the
eastern Pacific off the West Coast and the northern and central Atlantic
between the Canadian Maritimes and Northeastern U.S. and Europe. Thick
smoke primarily from the wildfires in the Western U.S. covered a sizable
portion of California and the Pacific to the southwest of California and
extended farther inland over Nevada, southern and southeastern Oregon,
southern Idaho, and far western Utah. More localized thicker density
smoke could be seen closer to some of the wildfires in southern British
Columbia. Cloud cover over part of the Pacific Northwest limited smoke
detection somewhat in satellite imagery but at least some moderate smoke
was visible in between breaks in the clouds in that region. Farther to
the east, a large batch of moderate to thick density smoke attributed
in part to the Western U.S. wildfires as well as a few wildfires over
south central Canada and northern Minnesota was visible stretching along
the northern tier of the U.S. from Michigan to Maine and across eastern
Ontario and western and central Quebec. Finally, a rather concentrated
patch of dense smoke, linked to wildfires in Canada and the Western U.S.,
was present over the eastern Atlantic likely moving into Europe.

Alaska/Gulf of Alaska/Western and Northwestern Canada/Northwestern U.S…
Some remnant thin density smoke likely from recent wildfire activity
in Siberia was visible this morning spreading to the southeast across
far southern Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, and over British Columbia and
the Pacific Northwest where it merges with smoke from the wildfires in
southern British Columbia and the Western U.S. Additional thin density
smoke likely from the Siberian wildfires was seen spreading to the east
and southeast across northwestern Canada.

DUST:
Atlantic/Caribbean Region...
A very large area of mainly moderate density Saharan dust was detected
reaching as far west as the eastern Bahamas, eastern Cuba, Hispaniola,
Puerto Rico, and the central and eastern Caribbean. The huge mass of
dust extended from these areas to the east and over virtually the entire
tropical and subtropical Atlantic to 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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.