Smoke from Wild Fires Visible on Satellite Image

Today let’s look at smoke from western wildfires that has spread over the Upper Midwest. The smoke is visible as a milky haze over the entire region. Yesterday’s post shows how smoke can spread by upper level winds to reach the Upper Midwest. The air is aloft and is not restricting the horizontal visibility near the ground. However, as you will see below, the visibility looking upward is restricted.

Visible Satellite Image 3:51 CDT 9-14-2022. This photo is courtesy of NOAA with more images available here: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/index.php. Cirrus clouds are visible but partially obscured by the smoke over Iowa.

The two photos below show the sky at Cedar Falls, Iowa at 4:20 PM CDT today. The top photo shows a contrail partially obscured by smoke. The smoke is most noticeable in the western half of the sky (left) nearest the Sun. This photo is looking northwest. The sunlight is strongly scattered in that part of the sky. Scattering to the east (right) is much weaker so the sky has more blue visible along with the contrail.

A contrail is dimly visible through the smoke aloft. Photo copyright 2022 by Craig Johnson, Weather Briefing, LC. Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Cirrus clouds visible through the smoke. Notice how the sky is not its usual blue color because of the smoke. Photo copyright 2022 by Craig Johnson, Weather Briefing, LC. Cedar Falls, Iowa.

The bottom photo shows cirrus clouds visible through the smoke. Again, the western sky (this time to the right) is whiter than the eastern sky (left). Compare this photo to the satellite image above to see how the smoke looks from above compared to looking at it from below. The cirrus visible in patches on the satellite image is less distinct when viewed below. This photo is looking south.

When scrolling down to previous posts, the variation in sky color compared to photos above is striking. The photos without smoke aloft are distinctly blue and is more representative of what we experience here throughout the year. Winter skies are usually the bluest except when clouds interfere. In the summer the sky is not as blue on days with high humidity. Several days of very humid air allows haze to build up and filter what we see.