DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z August 11, 2015
SMOKE Northwest to Central US/Southwest and Central Canada/Hudson Bay: An extremely large mass of thin density smoke covers much of the Northwest US (northwest California, western Oregon, western/central Washington, northern Idaho, northwest Montana) and Central US (most of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, eastern/central Oklahoma and eastern Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas) with the smoke over the Central US becoming increasingly more thin and patchy. The thin dense smoke also extends into southwestern and central Canada (southern British Columbia, most of Alberta except for northwest portions, all of Saskatchewan, western/central Manitoba and Northwest Territory and eastern Nunavut). Some thicker smoke was seen over northwest Montana and southern Alberta though cloudiness over the Western US did interfere with additional smoke density information across California, Oregon and Washington. A good portion of this smoke is likely due to the significant fires burning in southwestern Oregon and northern California, though some contribution is also being provided by other fires in east Central California, as well as ones in Idaho, western Montana, and Washington. A final area of very light smoke is seen across the central/eastern portions of the Hudson Bay and into northwest Ontario. J Kibler 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