DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 27, 2016
Smoke: Area from Wyoming to the Northern and Central Plains: An expansive area of thin to moderately dense smoke covered a good portion of the Northern and Central Plains from South Dakota and the southern half of Minnesota southward to Kansas and northern Missouri. This smoke was attributed primarily to a couple of large wildfire complexes in western Wyoming. Closer to the western Wyoming fires, plumes of thick smoke spread eastward across much of Wyoming. Idaho: The Pioneer wildfire in Boise county flared up this afternoon resulting in the production of a thick smoke plume which fanned out as it moved to the east over southern Idaho. Thinner density smoke from this fire reached into western Wyoming and close to the 2 large fire complexes in that state. Area from California to Utah and western Colorado: A large region of thin density smoke from the large fires burning south of Monterey along the central California coast and to the north of Los Angeles in southern Californa covered a good portion of California and Nevada and extended eastward over portions of Utah, northern Arizona, and western Colorado. Moderately dense to locally thick smoke was visible especially to the north and northeast of the fire south of Monterey over the central California coast reaching the San Francisco Bay area close to sunset. Southern and Southeastern Canada: An area of very thin density smoke likely leftover from the ongoing wildfires in western Canada was seen spreading to the east over portions of Ontario and western Quebec. West Central Canada: A number of wildfires around Lake Athabasca were emitting dense smoke plumes which moved to the north during the day. The area of thinner surrounding smoke extended up from northern Saskatchewan into the southeastern part of the Northwest Territories and southwestern Nunavut. Alaska: Several fires in north central Alaska were producing smoke plumes of varying density which generally moved to the north. DUST: Western Atlantic/Caribbean: An aerosol which is likely composed of some Saharan Dust was seen moving west over the southern Atlantic including the Bahamas and into the eastern Caribbean affecting Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. JS 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