DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z August 3, 2013
Western US: This morning, several wildfires burning in the western US had produced strands of mostly thin smoke that extended across parts of California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Cloud cover across some of the Pacific Northwest may have obscured other smoke. Blowing dust/sand that was elevated by strong winds across Nevada yesterday evening is also believed to have mixed with smoke from northern Nevada into western Wyoming. This evening, smoke from wildfires in Oregon and northern California produced a thin layer of remnant smoke visible over much of northern California, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana. The Aspen fire in central California also produced smoke that spread across central Nevada. Central US/Central Canada: A very large area remnant smoke extends from as Nunavut, Canada southward across most of central Canada and covers much of the Great Lakes region, the Midwest, and central US reaching as far south as northern Texas. An area of medium density horseshoe-shaped remnant smoke was analyzed this evening spreading across northern Manitoba. Much of the smoke, especially across Canada has come from northwestern Canada and Alaskan wildfires. Some of the smoke across the US is also from those sources but likely has also come from the wildfires in the western US. Eastern Canada: Thin to moderately dense was seen between areas of thick cloud cover across southeast Quebec, Labrador, and Newfoundland. This smoke has been steadily moving across Canada during the past 2-3 days and likely originated from northwest Canada wildfires. A couple wildfires still burning in southeast Quebec may have also contributed some smoke as well. Western Canada/Alaska: Mostly thin smoke covered parts of eastern Alaska, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and parts of British Columbia. This smoke is mostly residual aerosol from wildfires that have been burning in northwest Canada and Alaska recently. Fires in Alaska and western Canada continued to produce large amounts of smoke this evening. Puerto Rico/Eastern Caribbean: An expansive area of elevated Saharan dust has been crossing the central Atlantic over the past few days. The leading edge of this area of optically thick dust had reached Puerto Rico and covered much of the Eastern Caribbean this morning. It will continue to push westward over the next few days. The leading edge reached the Dominican Republic by sunset. LP/Sheffler 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