DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0345Z September 5, 2015
SMOKE: Central/Eastern US/Southeast Canada: Scattered patches of thin remnant smoke exist across portions of the Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley, and the Central and Lower Mississippi River Valley. In addition a large area of remnant smoke exists along/over the East Coast of the US and Southeast Canada stretching from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia southwestward to the coasts of Georgia/South Carolina. Moderately dense smoke is present over eastern North Carolina and offshore the Carolinas as well as within a small patch southeast of Massachusetts. Thin smoke extends inland across the Carolinas to the southern edge of the Appalachians. Much of this smoke originates from fires in the western US and is several days old. Smoke over the central and lower Mississippi River Valley is much more likely to be from agricultural burning going on in parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi though. Northwestern US: Patches of thin remnant smoke are present between areas of thick cloud over north Idaho, far northwest Montana, Washington, northwest Oregon, and southern British Columbia. Most of this smoke is thought to have come from local fires burning in the Pacific Northwest. California/Nevada: Thin smoke from the Rough Fire in the Sierra Nevada range of central California extended northeast this evening across southwest portions of Nevada. Moderately dense to dense smoke from this fire was observed closer to the point source. In addition, a mixture of Asian smoke and dust could be seen in GOES imagery streaming across the eastern Pacific waters over central and southern California, and mixing with the smoke from the Rough Fire as the Asian smoke reached southern Nevada. Northern Canada: Elongated areas of mostly thin smoke area seen extending to the west and northwest across northern Canada. The smoke stretches from north Hudson Bay west across Nunavut as well as Northwest across the Northwest Territories. Some of this smoke is remnant from western US fires while smoke further west is likely of Asian origin. DUST: Nevada/Northern California: Several plumes of blowing dust/sand could be seen in evening GOES visible imagery originating from northeast California and northwest Nevada progressing eastward across the Great Basin. The plumes of dust generally started to become visible around 22Z and had continued through sunset at 0230Z. UNKNOWN AEROSOL: An area of unknown aerosol is observed over portions of western North Dakota, eastern Montana, and far northwest South Dakota. The aerosol is generally moving slowly westward which would point to it being at a lower level in the atmosphere given mid-upper level winds are out of the southwest which does not agree with the aerosol's movement. Several fires yesterday in southern Manitoba could have produced this aerosol and smoke seems to be the most likely type of aerosol given its height/location though it cannot be determined with any certainty. 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