DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z July 28, 2012
North Central US: A huge expanse of thin density smoke that has mainly originated from wildfires in Canada is covering parts of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and the Great Lakes. A significantly smaller smoke contribution comes from smoke producing fires in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Great Slave Lake/Lake Athabasca Region: Several dense-smoke producing wildfires continue to burn along the Alberta-Northwest Territories border in Canada. Light density remnant smoke encompasses the majority of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Hudson Bay while a thin ribbon of moderate density smoke is observed stretching across the northern portion of these provinces. Eastern Manitoba/Western Ontario: More large wildfires are active in east Central Manitoba whose remnant smoke stretches over northern Ontario, James' Bay, and much of Quebec. Detached smoke is moderate to dense over most of Ontario. Northwestern Canada: An area of aerosol presumed to be smoke from both fires in Siberia and fires in southern Northwest Territories is observed over the eastern portion of Yukon Territory, the western portion of Northwest Territories, and parts of northern British Columbia. Smoke is light in density. Western Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico: Saharan dust is visible this morning stretching over the Bahamas, southern Florida, and the central Gulf of Mexico. Ramirez 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