DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z July 27, 2012
Canada/Northern and Central US: Wildfires scattered across a large region stretching from northwestern to south central Canada continue to emit large quantities of smoke. An enormous area of thin density smoke extends from northwestern Canada across much of central Canada to southeastern Canada and the Canadian Maritimes. Embedded within this large area are patches of moderately dense to thick smoke. Thin to moderately dense smoke had also spread southeastward across portions of the Dakotas and northern Minnesota. Farther to the east, the band moved over Lake Superior, northern Lake Huron and possibly northern Maine. To the south, mainly thin density smoke was located over the Central Plains. Some of the smoke over the Plains was due to fires burning in that region. Northwestern US/Southwestern Canada: Aerosol believed to be remnant smoke from the Siberian fires was detected in visible imagery along the Washington and Oregon coastline and southern British Columbia. Alaska/Northwestern Canada: An area of aerosol, presumed to be smoke from fires in Siberia, extended across central Alaska into the Northwest Territories of northwestern Canada. Another patch of aerosol linked to the Siberian fires was visible just ahead of an area of cloudiness over the Bering Sea. Nevada: A couple of swaths of thin density blowing dust originated from sources in south central Nevada and moved to the north during the afternoon and early evening. Southeast US/Middle Atlantic: A combination of smoke from US and Canadian fires as well as other pollutants was located across much of the Southeast, Middle Atlantic, and offshore. Florida and Gulf Coast States: Dust from the Saharan Desert was moving west across Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and northward into southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. JS/MT THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS 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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/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