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Smoke, wildfires, Sept 2020

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These are forecast plots from HRRR - smoke

  • They are from this page:
  • There are fires throughout the western U.S. They are especially large in California.
  • Consider the conservation of mass: Change in smoke at a point = transport of smoke to that point + production – loss
  • Reason through, how is smoke diminished or lost?
  • The “vertical smoke” figures are vertically integrated smoke.

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6 hr fcst for 18 Z, Mon, 20200907, vertical smoke

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18 hr fcst for 18 Z, Tue, 20200908, vertical smoke

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48 hr fcst for 12 Z, Wed, 20200909, vertical smoke

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18 hr fcst for 18 Z, Tue, 20200908, surface smoke

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48 hr fcst for 12 Z, Wed, 20200909, surface smoke

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Fire Hazard and Smoke: NOAA OSPO

  • https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/land/hms.html#events
    • Includes fires
    • Smoke is from geostationary satellite observations
    • Date does not update on map. So I added it.

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NOAA_OSPO_Smoke_Fire_2020907 (Fire Count)

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NOAA_OSPO_Smoke_Fire_2020908 (Fire count)

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Dynamical situation

  • From September 7 to September 8 an exceptional cold front moved from the upper Plains and towards Colorado, causing a 60 degree temperature change in 24 hours.
  • Associated with this is a strong perturbation of the jet stream to the south, over Colorado.
  • Revisit the movies on rotational flow to see how jet streams influence transport of mass.
  • Capital Weather Gang on Colorado cold front (1)
  • Capital Weather Gang on Colorado cold front (2)

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