DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 1, 2017
SMOKE: Western and Central US... A very large area of thin density smoke was present across a good portion of the Central and Western US with the northern half of the smoke mainly attributed to long range transport from wildfires burning in eastern Alaska and Northwestern Canada while the southern portion of the area is from wildfire activity primarily in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. The most significant smoke appeared to be emanating from the Frye Fire in southeastern Arizona where dense smoke had spread into southwestern New Mexico while moderately dense to locally thick smoke was noted over southern Utah closer to the Brian Head Fire. Alaska/Northwestern Canada... Wildfires in northeastern Alaska and the northern Yukon and northwest part of the Northwest Territories were responsible for a region of varying density smoke which moved primarily to the west across the northern part of Alaska. Northwestern/Southwestern/Eastern Canada... Separate swaths of leftover thin density smoke all believed to be from the ongoing wildfire activity over northeastern Alaska and Northwestern Canada could be seen over the Northwest Territories in northwestern Canada, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan in southwestern Canada, and from Hudson Bay across northern Quebec in eastern Canada. Cloudiness over portions of Canada though did interfere with additional information on smoke extent. DUST: Central and Western Gulf of Mexico... The area of Saharan dust continued to push farther to the west and northwest during the day covering the central and western Gulf of Mexico and likely spreading inland over the coastal regions of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the western Florida Panhandle. 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