DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1545Z August 21, 2014
Eastern Canada/Hudson Bay: A large symmetrical anticyclone is parked over the SE portion of Hudson Bay and thin to moderately dense smoke covers the entire area from continental Nunavut, N of Quebec (to Labrador boarder and as far south as the southern tip of James Bay), Ontario and NE Manitoba. Density is highest along the periphery particularly over Manitoba/NW Hudson Bay, ie closer to the source fires in NW Territories, N Alberta and N Saskatchewan (which have significantly waned in intensity and coverage due to the significant change in weather pattern). The smoke will continue to move around the anticyclone but overall the anticyclone is stagnant in its location. A very small piece of thin smoke can be seen early in the NW jet across the far S St. Lawrence seaway into N ME across Nova Scotia to an area of bit higher but still thin density smoke along the base of the low over Cape Race and south. N Canada: Remnant smoke likely from transport across the poles a few days/week ago can be seen moving south across the territorial islands of NW Territories into the NE NW Territories and extreme NW Nunavut...before mixing with lower level smoke that has been more recently emitted (at lower volumes) from the fires that surround Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie River. The smoke becomes moderately dense to the east of the fires and is dropping SE toward Lake Athabasca. California: Moderate to dense smoke can be seen in the valleys to the west of the fires in N California... a broad area of thin to moderately dense smoke can be seen moving east across N California, and the northern 1/3 of Nevada. British Columbia: Large fire complexes in central BC continue to produce moderately dense to dense smoke that is moving SE across the central valley of BC (please see graphic/gis page at links below). 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