DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z June 30, 2013
Alaska: Cloudiness across Alaska interfered somewhat with smoke detection during the day from the ongoing wildfires scattered around the state. Some smoke of varying density was still seen over the state stretching to the east into the Yukon of western Canada. Canada: Patches of wildfires were detected across portions of Canada stretching from the Northwest Territories all the way to Quebec. An enormous area of thin density smoke emanating from these fires covered much of the country. Areas of moderately dense to thick smoke were located closer to the source regions though some of the thicker smoke from the fires over northern Manitoba had spread well to the south with some of it even entering the north central U.S. Thicker smoke from the fires over Quebec had also moved to the south and southwest toward the north central U.S. US: As stated in the paragraph above, smoke from the Canadian fires had entered the northern and central U.S. with thin density smoke reaching as far south as the Central Plains and moderately dense to thick smoke moving over Lake Superior, northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and the U.P. Of Michigan. Over the Southwest, a large mass of thin density smoke was visible circulating around a large region of upper level high pressure with smoke covering a portion of the eastern Pacific, the Southwest, the Rockies, and the Southern Plains. This smoke was caused by wildfires scattered across the Southwestern US and northwestern Mexico. Areas of thicker density smoke were embedded within this region with the thicker smoke extending from southern California to northern New Mexico. Thicker smoke was also seen closer to some of the active wildfires in this region as well. 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.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