DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0315Z July 28, 2012
Canada/Northern and Central US/Ohio Valley: Wildfires continue to be scattered across a large region stretching from northwestern to south central Canada. A huge expanse of thin density smoke mainly attributed to these fires covers a significant portion of western and central Canada as well as the northern and central US. The leading edge of the thin density smoke appeared to reach as far to the southeast as the eastern Great Lakes region and the central Appalachians. A separate swath of thin density smoke was observed across far southeastern Canada and the Canadian Maritimes. Patches of moderately dense to thick smoke were located closer to the fires in Canada with a particularly dense area over western Ontario in south central Canada. Areas of moderately dense smoke attributed to the Canadian fires were analyzed over portions of the western Great Lakes region, the Upper Mississippi Valley, and the Central Plains. Northwestern US/Southwestern Canada: Aerosol believed to be remnant smoke from the Siberian fires was detected in visible imagery along the area stretching from northern California across Washington and Oregon to northern Idaho, western Montana, and southwestern Canada. Northwestern Canada: Another area of aerosol, presumed to be smoke from fires in Siberia, extended from the Canadian arctic southward to Nunavut. Nevada: A swaths of thin density blowing dust originated from a dry lake bed in western Nye County of south central Nevada and moved to the north during the afternoon and early evening. Florida and Gulf Coast States: Dust from the Saharan Desert was visible over the Bahamas and western Atlantic as well as central and southern Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, and inland over southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. JS THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov