DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1745Z August 30, 2015
SMOKE: North Idaho/Northwest Montana/West and Southern Canada/Great Lakes/Central US/Southern Plains: An expansive area of moderately dense to very dense smoke covers much of the central US and southern Canada with the pockets of most dense smoke from east Iowa to Lake Superior, near the intersection of Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota, and over the Texas Panhandle into southeast New Mexico. Smoke stretches southward through the Central US to southern Texas and extreme northern Mexico. All of this smoke is originating from large wildfires that continue to burn in the northwestern US states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Thin to moderately dense smoke extends northward from closer to the wildfires across west Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and into southwestern Northwest Territories. While much of this smoke is obviously from the northwest US fires, there is also be some added smoke that had traveled across the Pacific from Siberian wildfires that is mixing in. Southwest Montana/Southern Idaho/Nevada/Oregon/California: A stream of thin smoke is seen extending northeast from off the California coast to central Idaho. This and another small patch of thin smoke just west of Oregon is believed to be remnant Siberian wildfire smoke that is being brought in by the west coast trough. Asian dust may also be mixing in with this smoke plume. Further east, another plume of thin smoke reaches from central Nevada to far southwest Montana and is likely smoke originating from wildfires in California's Sierra Nevada range. Northeast US/Mid-Atlantic/Southeast Canada: Areas of mostly light density smoke likely from the Pacific NW fires are seen over and off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast US, north of Nova Scotia, and southeast of Newfoundland. The smoke is generally moving east. Northern Canada: Two patches of thin smoke are present over western and northern Hudson Bay as well as over adjacent portions of Nunavut. This smoke is most likely remnant Siberian smoke moving across the Arctic. 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