DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z September 16, 2014
SMOKE: Western U.S: Multiple large wildfire complexes throughout the western U.S. are pumping out moderately dense to heavy density smoke, visible over much of the region and moving eastward. The farthest eastward extent of the smoke is over South Dakota and Nebraska, and northward is reaching the Washington/British Columbia border. Moderately dense smoke is visible over Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, northwestern Nevada, and northern California. The heaviest density smoke is currently being emitted from the King wildfire complex in California, as well as a separate area of heavy density smoke moving over eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana. Western Canada: Moderately dense to heavy density smoke is currently being emitted from multiple wildfires occurring in British Columbia, generally moving eastward. This area of smoke can be seen southward towards the Washington border, as well as eastward into Alberta, and the heaviest smoke is focused close to the wildfire sources. DUST: An extent of Saharan dust is visible over eastern and central portions of the Gulf of Mexico, currently surging over central Florida as far as a line west-east just south of Orlando. The full extent of the dust is difficult to discern due to cloud cover from convection across the Gulf Coast states. Heeps 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