DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 30, 2017
SMOKE: Western North America... Wildfires throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia have been observed producing a large 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. Some of this smoke has also drifted northward across western Canada. Many of the smoke plumes emanating from individual wildfires are of moderate to heavy density, which is contributing to the moderately thick smoke plume that is exists from northern and central California into the Dakotas. This plume then extends eastward into the upper peninsula of Michigan and south into east-central New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Central and Eastern Canada/Southern Greenland... A predominantly light density smoke region is observed blanketing northeastern Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, northern Labrador, southern portions of Greenland, and Newfoundland. This smoke layer is likely the result of wildfires throughout central Canada with minor contributions from the wildfires across western North America. Closer to the source region in Saskatchewan, moderate to heavy smoke has been analyzed. Much of the most dense smoke is emanating from the previously mentioned wildfires. North of Hawaii into northern California... Thin density remnant smoke is seen over the Pacific between Hawaii and Northern California in an area similar to that which was observed yesterday. This feature appears to be drifting to the south while consolidating within the cyclonic feature northeast of Hawaii. DUST: Eastern Caribbean and points north and east... A Saharan dust layer is observed over the eastern Caribbean Sea. This layer also extends north to just east of Bermuda. This dust layer, seen for much of the past few days, has been and is drifting off to the east. Westbrook/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