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Monday, September 4, 2017

Smoke Front Hits Western Washington

As predicted in my earlier blog, smoke pushed its way across the Cascades into western Washington as the winds reversed at and above crest level....and the transition was dramatic.

Here are a sequence of images from the Seattle Space Needle panocam looking eastward.

 At 6:40 AM, Rainier was still visible, but there is some smoke on the horizon.


 At 9:40 AM, Rainier was gone and smoke was moving in over the eastside.

By 11 AM, smoke was dominating and you can hardly see any clouds above.
By noon, the clouds were gone
At 1 PM, the smoke had thickened into cloud-like densities

The intensity of solar radiation was greatly reduced by the smoke.  Here are measurements at the UW.  

On a clear, smoke-free day the solar radiation has a perfect cosine shape:
Today, the variation is ragged and reduced.


I was very surprised to see the smoke cloud in the local weather radar (Camano Island).  Seeing vertical plumes and pyrocumulus with radar  I had noted before....but the smoke cloud even showed in the radar today (which is in clear air mode).   Here are some images from this AM.  Look over Seattle...see the red/orange stuff move in--that is the plume (it is better in an animation)




And, of course, the smoke plume was evident in the visible satellite imagery.  Look carefully and see if you can trace the smoke over Seattle.





 Finally, the latest high-resolution MODIS imagery.   Can you tell the difference between some high wispy cirrus (white) and the brownish-white smoke?  Portland looks really bad.





from Cliff Mass Weather and Climate Blog http://ift.tt/2eWrRPT

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