DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0315Z August 4, 2013
Central/South Central US: Light remnant smoke could still be seen over northern Texas , Oklahoma, southern Arkansas, and northern Mississippi. This smoke may have originated from fires in the Pacific Northwest or Canada and moved southward during the last few days. In addition, an area of unknown aerosol was present from eastern Kansas to Kentucky/northern Tennessee with another small patch of the aerosol seen over Indiana/Ohio. While this aerosol could be remnant smoke from Canada or Pacific Northwest, it could not be determined for certain. Alaska/Northern and Central Canada/Great Lakes Region: A large area of light to moderate density smoke stretched from the Yukon and Northwest Territories/eastern Alaska eastward to central Hudson Bay and south/southeast across northeast Saskatchewan, much of Manitoba, western/southern Ontario before extending across much of the Great Lakes region including portions of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. This smoke is from fires that have been burning across Alaska, northwest Canada, and central Canada recently. Western and North Central US/Southwest Canada: Thin remnant smoke extended from central and southern Alberta/southern Saskatchewan south and southeast across Montana, western North Dakota, South Dakota, southwest Minnesota, and northern Wyoming. Thin to moderately dense smoke also was seen this evening, mostly from active wildfires, across California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and western Montana. Dense smoke was most prevalent over far northeast California and southwest Oregon where numerous fires were analyzed today. Puerto Rico and the rest of the Caribbean: An expansive area of Saharan dust continued to move across the western Atlantic and most of the Caribbean Sea this evening spanning at least 15 degrees of latitude. By sunset the elevated dust had extended westward to he Bahamas/central Cuba. 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