DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z June 23, 2016
SMOKE: Southwest US/Central Plains and Middle Mississippi and Tennessee Valley: Wildfires burning in the southwestern US are producing an expansive area of light density remnant smoke that is observed in satellite imagery stretching over the central US. Smoke is seen stretching over Arizona, Utah, Colorado, southern Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and into central Tennessee, western Kentucky and southern/central Indiana. Currently, the largest wildfire (Cedar wildfire) is producing very dense smoke northeast and moving across the border into New Mexico. Canada/Northern US An area of light to moderately dense remnant smoke is observed in satellite imagery over several Canadian territories this afternoon/evening including southern/central Yukon, Northern Territories and southern Nunavut, as well as northern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and far western/central Ontario. The smoke reaches into the northern US – northeast Montana and western/central North Dakota. The heaviest smoke stretches across Saskatchewan, Manitoba and northwest Quebec. This overall area of smoke likely originated from wildfire activity over central Alaska with most of the smoke coming from two wildfires southwest of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. DUST: Atlantic/Caribbean: Some thin density aerosol which may be Saharan dust was seen over a portion of the Atlantic south of the Bahamas extending over Cuba and the Caribbean to the Yucatan. Southern California/Northern Baja/Arizona: Several plumes of thin dust can be seen blowing east across portions of southern California and reaching sections of southwest-western Arizona. 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