DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z August 19, 2014
Canada/U.S: Extensive cloud cover over much of central and northern Canada, including where the massive wildfires around Great Slave Lake have been burning for the past 2 months, is obscuring an accurate assessment of the full extent of smoke in Canada. The smoke roughly covers southern British Columbia, the southern half of Alberta, much of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and southern Hudson Bay before curling to the southeast into southwest Quebec. The smoke also spills over the border into the northern Rockies and northern Plains of the US, covering most of Montana, the Dakotas and Minnesota. The areas of moderate to dense smoke were mostly confined to a swath from southeast Alberta into northeast Montana, the western Dakotas and into southern South Dakota. It also extends over southern Saskatchewan into central and northeast Manitoba into western Hudson Bay. Northeastern U.S and Atlantic: Light areas of remnant smoke from the northern Canadian wildfires was seen along coastal New England and continued eastward into the Atlantic south of Nova Scotia. Western U.S: Multiple wildfire complexes continue to burn in northern California. The smoke extended to the north across western Oregon and then curved to the east across Washington and Idaho and then merged with the smoke from the Canadian fires over Montana. The California smoke also was being drawn south off the California coast to at least the San Francisco area. The smoke was mostly light density, with patches of moderate density near the California and Oregon coasts and a small area of dense smoke over the complexes. Gulf of Alaska: A streak of light density smoke was detected over the Gulf of Alaska from near Kodiak Island to near Queen Charlotte Island. The origin of the smoke is uncertain. Northern Canada: A streak of light smoke persists over northwest Nunavut and northeastern NW Territories, extending to the northwest over the open Arctic ocean. DUST: A broad area of Saharan dust is currently over much of the western and southern Gulf of Mexico and the western Caribbean. The dust extends over the southern half of the Florida peninsula and also is lifting into southeastern Texas. Ruminski 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