Smoke from the wildfires in the Pacific Northwest traveled all the way to Europe and NASA just released images to prove it.
The images captured by the Suomi NPP weather satellite, illustrate smoke lofted high in the atmosphere. The dark orange-brown colors on the map indicate high concentrations of smoke and yellow colors indicate lower concentration.
“You can see that the smoke cloud on September 6 is part of the long stream of smoke emanating from the Pacific Northwest,” said Colin Seftor, an atmospheric scientist working for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It almost looks like it was flung across the Atlantic.”
The pictures released by NASA show four different days.
- September 4 – The smoke is over the midwest
- September 5 – The smoke moves over Main and Eastern Canada
- September 6 – The smoke is over the Atlantic
- September 7 – The smoke is over Ireland, United Kingdom and France
Experts says there is no concern about the air quality over Europe because the aerosols are in high levels of the atmosphere.
“It’s not that uncommon for smoke from fires in North America to reach Europe,” Seftor said. But Seftor added that the smoke clouds over Europe appear larger and thicker than normal.
On September 5, people around the Portland Oregon area reported falling ash.
It’s snowing ash in Portland from the wildfires that are savaging the forests of Oregon. pic.twitter.com/txjFweMqyo
— Nathaniel St. Clair (@NatStClair) September 5, 2017
As of September 14, several fires in the Northwest were still burning.
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