Clouds and Smoke - Thursday, May 18, 2023

Smoke continues to spread over the Upper Midwest. There are two areas of smoke. Considerable smoke aloft producing a milky sky resides over parts of Missouri northeast through eastern Iowa over Wisconsin and the Upper Great Lakes region. This smoke is entirely aloft.

The second area covers the Dakotas, parts of Montana and south into Wyoming and Nebraska and northwest Iowa, behind a cold front. Smoke is reported at ground level in much of that area.

Just east of a cold front that has entered northwest Iowa there is a wedge of clear air from northeast Kansas into southwestern through northeast Iowa to north central Wisconsin. This is based on satellite and surface observations. The satellite image below clearly shows the smoke behind that front and a second cold front to the north. It also shows a field of cumulus clouds.

The fronts are shown on the surface maps below. The first map shows the surface observations with the fronts superimposed and the second points out a few of the surface observations where haze and smoke are reported. The haze is the result of the smoke that has reached ground level.

This image is courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/STAR. The notations are added by Weather briefing.

Clouds in the Cumulus cloud field entering northeast Iowa this afternoon.

If you would like to learn how to read and decode the station model plots use our tutorial by scrolling down our HOMEPAGE HERE to the tutorial about station model plots. In the meantime, the second map points out a few of the surface observation plots which report haze, smoke, and reduced visibility due to smoke at ground level.

Map plotted by Digital Atmosphere available from www.weathergraphics .com.

Map plotted by Digital Atmosphere available from www.weathergraphics.com. Notations added by Weather Briefing, LC.