DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1715Z September 26, 2014
South Central to North Central US/Southern Manitoba: A large area of thin smoke with embedded areas of moderately dense smoke stretches from the Southern Plains northward across the Midwest and Northern Plains states to far southern Manitoba. Other small separate patches of thin smoke were seen over east Oklahoma and northeast Texas. This smoke is from numerous fires that have been burning over the past few days along the Mississippi River Valley, in the Southern Plains states, and in south central Canada. Southern Canada: An area of thin to moderately dense smoke is present over much of northern Ontario, James Bay, and far western Quebec. The bulk of this smoke is thought to be 2-3 days old and leftover from both the King Fire in California and from fires that had been burning in northern Idaho. Over the past 3 days, the smoke has been transported northeast and now east across southern Canada. Some additional remnant smoke from these fires may be hidden by low clouds across parts of central Manitoba/Saskatchewan. A small patch of thin smoke was seen sticking out from the area of clouds along the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border. Great Lakes Region: Areas of optically thick unknown aerosol were seen over Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, southern Ontario, southern Quebec, and parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. Most of the aerosol is not believed to be smoke related and could be composed mostly of pollution/sulfates. Sheffler 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