DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 30, 2017
SMOKE: Pacific Northwest/Eastern Great Plains... Wildfires throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia have been observed producing a smoke plume of varying density. This large smoke plume is riding around the periphery of a ridge over the western CONUS, traveling over eastern Montana and south along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Many of the smoke plumes emanating from individual wildfires are of moderate to heavy density, which is contributing to the thick smoke that is blanketing much of western Montana, Washington State, western Oregon, and southern British Columbia. Northern and Eastern Canada/Great Lakes/New England... A predominantly light density smoke region is observed covering much of eastern Canada from eastern Saskatchewan to southern portions of Greenland. This smoke layer is likely the result of wildfires throughout central Canada. Closer to the source region, moderate to heavy smoke has been analyzed. Much of the most dense smoke is emanating from the previously mentioned wildfires. However,the moderate density smoke likely has a second origin in addition to the wildfires: remnant smoke from the wildfires in southern British Columbia that has circumnavigated the globe. The remnant smoke, which still has portions of moderate density, can be seen across northern portions of Alaska and the northern provinces of Canada then coming caross the wildfires in central Saskatchewan. This remnant feature is drifting northward while much of the plume in eastern Canada is moving off to the east. North of Hawaii into northern California... A remnant stripe of light to moderate density smoke was observed extending from just north of Hawaii into northern California, where the stripe appears to merge with a massive smoke plume emanating from wildfires in northern California. This smoke has also likely circumnavigated the globe, as per the series of OMPS Aerosol Index maps for August 2017. The southern portion is wrapping up into a small cyclonic feature, while the northern portion is moving off to the east into the western CONUS. DUST: Caribbean Islands and points north and east... A Saharan dust layer is observed over the Windward Islands. This layer also extends north to just east of Bermuda and to the east into the central tropical Atlantic Ocean. This dust layer, seen for much of the past few days, has been and is moving off to the north and east. 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