DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 25, 2017
SMOKE: Canada/Far Northern US... As has been the case for a number of days now, a significant batch of moderately dense to thick smoke covered a sizable part of Canada from Alberta and the eastern half of the Northwest Territories eastward to northern Quebec. The moderately dense smoke also spread southward over Lake Superior and the U.P. of Michigan by late in the afternoon. This long lived area of smoke is leftover from wildfire activity especially over central and southwestern Canada though some smoke from the fires in the Northwestern US is also likely involved. Large area from the Northwestern US to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US... An expansive region of thin density smoke stretches from along the coast of northern California and much of Washington and Oregon eastward over the northern and central Rockies, the Northern and Central Plains, the Great Lakes region, the Ohio and Mid-Mississippi Valley regions, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the Northeast. Moderately dense to thick smoke extended from northern California and southwestern Oregon to the Dakotas. The thicker smoke in the region from northern California and southwestern Oregon to the Dakotas was primarily attributed to numerous wildfires burning over western Montana, central Idaho, Washington, central and southwestern Oregon, and northern California. The smoke farther to the east over the central and eastern US is likely from a combination of the fires over the northwestern US as well as central and southwestern Canada. DUST: Caribbean... An area of Saharan dust continued to spread very slowly to the west and appeared to be in the vicinity of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the southern Bahamas, Cuba, and at least some of the Caribbean though cloudiness during the day made detection difficult 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