DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z June 18, 2014
Aerosols: Great Plains: A large area of haze conditions likely with very high moisture, mixed dust/sand, pollutants and smoke from the last two days of Asayii Lake fire in NM can be seen across much of the Great Plains with highest density near the convection across SD/NE NEB/IA and S MN... thinner areas can be seen further south extending into KS, OK and N TX as well as extending eastward along the frontal boundary... in IA, N IL, S WI, N IN, N OH. Smoke: Canada: A very large area is covered by smoke from the last few day's output from fires across western NW territories and N Alberta. These fires have become quite active tonight with the addition of a few more particularly further west and north along the Mackenzie River and between Big Bear Lake to NE Great Slave Lake.... near these fires dense to convectively dense smoke can be seen moving N and NNE into the large ridge building over the NW Territories. As such smoke from the last few days extends out from the source region toward the east into continental Nunavut, NE Manitoba, SW portions of Hudson Bay into N Ontario, James Bay and far W Quebec. Smoke begins to thin out further east, though decent convergence on the eastern side of the ridge into the base of the trof over Ontario has lead to some moderately dense smoke to be seen over NE Ontario into James Bay. Sand/Dust: US Southwest: A large cyclone over the Northern US Rockies is leading to a deep draw of SWly flow across S CA/NW Mexico into the desert SW kicking up loose dust and sand over a very large portion of the US Desert SW. Thin dust and sand covers much of AZ into SE UT, W CO and far NW NM. Specifics follow: AZ:Red Lake Dry bed east of Dolan Springs, AZ in NW Mohave county is producing a line of moderately dense sand that is about 30 km wide and extended NE about 350km into central Garfield county, UT. Four Corners: Sand from the Painted Desert and Black Mesa area of NE AZ is of moderate to dense conditions that cover a wide area moving NE into far SE UT and W CO. This plume is about 150 km wide and extends well into West Central CO about 250-300km from the source. Small dry lake beds produce distinct individual 2-5km wide plumes of dense sand within this area. S CA: Deserts west of the Salton Sea (E of Borrego Springs, CA) are producing moderately dense sand storm that covers the Salton Sea and agricultural valley south of the Sea. Due to channeled mtn winds that are following the terrain of the Vallecito Mtns flow off the western tip of the mtns... a concentrated band of very dense sand can be seen in a 5km wide band W to E that extends from the mtns to the southern tip of the Salton Sea to the AZ border. Gallina 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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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