How much longer with the smoke?

The haze over the Plains Thursday was pretty incredible and it will likely be something we are noticing all the way through the weekend. I don't ever remember a time when so much smoke traveled so far and inundated much of the country. Normally in Kansas, if we get smoke from western wildfires, it is around for a day and then passes. However, like everything else in 2020, this year is quite different with so many millions of acres burned. And due to the extreme heat and magnitude of the fires, the smoke has pushed almost into the stratosphere (the next layer of atmosphere above us) - roughly 12-15km in altitude.

How far has the smoke traveled?

This image shows the smoke has traveled across the Atlantic and reached Greenland, Iceland, and even to some degree, Europe.

Friday afternoon - smoke continues to filter down across the Rockies

Saturday afternoon - more smoke in many different areas

Sunday afternoon - it is still hanging around

We think the air quality will improve early next week when most of this gets pushed on to the southeast. And the Pacific Northwest should be getting some rain today (Friday) and again Saturday.

We will likely exhaust the list of names for tropical systems with Wilfred - expect to organize in the Gulf into the weekend.

This storm will likely hang out over the Gulf for many days to come and may not come on shore until the middle of next week. It is expected to become a hurricane over the weekend as it meanders over the warm water. How strong the storm may get isn't clear yet because we don't know how long it will remain over the Gulf. The storm will likely wrap the moisture up so well that any system tracking through Kansas (which won't be many) will have almost zero moisture to work with. Our forecast looks pretty dry into October. 

Have a great weekend.