DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1900Z August 20, 2013
US/South Central and Southeast Canada/Northern Mexico: An extensive area of thin to moderately dense smoke covers the entire Northeast US, Great Lakes region, Midwest, Northern and Central Plains, along with much of the southern Plains. Also covered by remnant smoke area parts of southeast and south central Canada, part of northern Mexico, and parts of several western US states including Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and California. Nearly all of this smoke is believed to have come from large wildfires burning in the western US though fires in northwest Canada may have also contributed some several day old smoke to the mix over south central and southeast Canada. The most dense area of smoke was observed moving across the western Dakotas, southeast Montana, and northeast Wyoming. Northeast Canada: An unknown aerosol could be seen this morning to the east/northeast of eastern Nunavut, Labrador, and Newfoundland. There is a chance that this aerosol could be made up of some remnant smoke from northern Canada/Alaska. Western Canada to Hudson Bay: A band of mostly thin smoke extended from central British Columbia eastward across central Canada to Hudson Bay. Some pockets of moderately dense smoke were embedded. Much of this smoke is probably from recent fires in northwest Canada and Alaska although some of the smoke over British Columbia and off the B.C. coast is likely Siberian wildfire smoke that had traveled southeastward across the Aleutians. 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