DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z June 30, 2014
SMOKE Eastern Canada: Little change was noted with the smoke across eastern Canada which was described in the text narrative earlier today... A large area of thin to moderately dense smoke from the Boreal Quebec fire complex continues to drift eastward across the southern Labrador Strait and northern Newfoundland. A pocket of particularly dense smoke can be seen from the northern peninsula of Newfoundland, east across the Atlantic then turning north toward the southern tip of Greenland but still south of 55N. Due to the development of a surface cyclone near 42N 55W... the eastward progression of the smoke was halted even stagnant across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, allowing areas of increase density smoke such as over coastal southeastern Quebec, southwestern Newfoundland toward northeastern Nova Scotia moving south offshore along the western side of the cyclone. Thinner smoke can be seen further west covering New Brunswick, and eastern Maine into the Gulf of Maine. Western and Central Canada: Numerous wildfires clustered around the Great Slave Lake in northern Alberta, northwestern Saskatchewan, and the southern portion of the Northwest Territories were emitting large quantities of moderately dense to thick smoke which moved more to the south during the afternoon and evening farther down into Alberta and Saskatchewan. The southern most extent of the smoke could not be determined due to cloudiness in the region. Additionally, a long swath of primarily thin density smoke from these fires moved in an easterly direction across north central Canada, the northern portion of Hudson Bay, to as far east as northern Quebec and the Labrador Sea. DUST: Gulf of Mexico/Central US Gulf Coast: A well defined moderately to dense Saharan Air Layer can be seen across the entire Western Gulf of Mexico and also spreading to the north covering much of southeastern Texas, Louisiana, and portions of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama. The most dense portion of the Saharan dust was visible over the western and southern Gulf of Mexico including the Bay of Campeche. Earlier this morning, a 2-3 degree wide west to east band extended back from the northeastern tip of the Yucatan to central Cuba and just south of Andros into Long Island in the South Central Bahamas. Idaho: A very narrow stripe of blowing dust originated from a point source on southeastern Idaho(northwestern Bingham County) just prior to 23Z and spread quickly to the northeast. AEROSOLS: West Texas/Southeast New Mexico to the Central Plains: An aerosol of unknown origin and composition was present in the area stretching from southeastern New Mexico and southwestern Texas to the Central Plains. Earlier this Morning... Central North American Continent: Very hazy conditions exist with mixed pollutants cover much of the central portion of the United States into Canada; embedded smoke from the San Juan fire may exist within this area that covers OK and the eastern 2/3rds of TX. Hazy conditions can be seen through breaks in the clouds covering MO, IL, IN, W OH, LP of MI, Eastern WI and becoming particularly dense again across E Ontario, James Bay, and far W Quebec. JS/Gallina THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF 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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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