You could write an entire meteorology textbook just based on the phenomena visible from this afternoon's wild satellite imagery looking down at the American West. (Thread) #CAwx #WAwx #ORwx #COwx #UTwx #MTwx #IDwx

Most prominent is incredibly strong early-season cold front plunging southward from Canada and currently stretching along a roughly east-west axis from Eastern Washington to North Dakota. Clouds are rapidly developing behind the front as cold air replaces a very hot airmass.

Next, there are numerous large wildfire smoke plumes visible in nearly every state not covered by clouds--including Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. The total smoke volume is massive, and extends across most of the continental U.S.

The effects of strong winds associated with cold front are visible as well, especially in eastern Washington (where there are both large fires & a huge dust storm visible). Across Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado, strong winds ahead of the front are driving explosive wildfire spread.

This powerful and extremely early season cold front will bring extremely critical fire conditions to NW Oregon tonight (a once-in-50-years kind of event), as well as record snowfall/cold across the Rocky Mountain Front Range (also a once-in-50 years kind of event).

This front & subsequently cool air over Great Basin will also bring season's first offshore wind event to California. It won't be as extreme by historical standards as in Oregon, but it comes at time of unprecedented pre-existing wildfire activity & is therefore of great concern.

Finally, a fascinating tidbit: the ultimate cause of this wild pattern across Western U.S. appears to be amplification of the Pacific jet stream by two West Pacific typhoons thousands of miles away--leading to an extreme ridge-trough pattern over the NE Pacific and Western U.S.