DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 16, 2017
SMOKE: Northern and Central Canada... The wildfire outbreak throughout the Northwest Territories and the Prairie Provinces is supporting a massive area of thin to moderate density smoke blanketing much of central and northern Canada from the western half of the Hudson Bay to the northern portion of the Yukon and into northeastern Alaska. This also pushes south into the central CONUS. A large area of heavily dense smoke covered the Beaufort Sea, most of the northeastern half of the Northwest Territories, southern Nunavut, extreme northern Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba, the western half of the Hudson Bay, portions of central/northern Ontario, and upstate New York. Southern British Columbia, southern Alberta and Southern Saskatchewan... The wildfires throughout southern British Columbia and, to a lesser extent, Washington state, Idaho, and Montana are contributing to another area of heavily dense smoke covers a good portion of southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and southern Saskatchewan. Lighter density smoke extends southward into far northern Washington state, Idaho, and Montana. This then merges with the light density smoke plume diving south from northern and central Canada across the Great Plains. California and southwest Oregon... Wildfires throughout California and Oregon are allowing a thin to moderately dense smoke plume to form over much of southwestern Oregon and much of northern and central California. Areas of moderately to heavily dense smoke are seen in the wildfire smoke plumes contributing to the larger area of thin density smoke. DUST: The Leeward Islands... An area of Saharan dust seen over the open Atlantic Ocean was located over the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic and spreading eastward. Bay of Campeche... A second, smaller area of Saharan dust is observed over the Bay of Campeche. This feature is moving northward into the western Gulf of Mexico. - Hosley 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