DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z August 31, 2021
SMOKE:
Western U.S./Central Rocky Mountains and Great Plains...
Widespread wildfire activity throughout the western CONUS was observed
emitting moderate to thick smoke. Smoke from wildfire activity in western
Oregon and northwestern California was moving south-southwestward,
while most smoke from other fire activity was mainly moving east or
east-northeast. The mainly moderate smoke was moving east-northeast
out across the Great Basin and Intermountain West. From there, some
smoke was moving north into Canada and some out into the central
CONUS. The lofted smoke moving into Canada was then rounding an upper
ridge over the Dakota, moving southeastward across the Great Lakes and
then east-northeast across the Northeast CONUS and St. Lawrence River
Valley. As for the smoke that was seen extending into the central CONUS,
a leftover Mesoscale Convective System was observed dragging some light
to moderate smoke across the Front Range and Central Plains.
DUST:
Tropical Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico...
An expanse of thin Saharan Dust was observed extending westward from
east of the Leeward Islands across the Greater Antilles, the northern
Caribbean, and the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico, where
some of the dust is being drawn northward then northeastward across the
Florida Panhandle and into Georgia on the southeast side of Tropical
Depression Ida. Another moderate layer of Saharan Dust was observed
extending westward from the Sahara to about 47W
Hosley
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