DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 1, 2014
SMOKE: Arizona/New Mexico/Central High Plains: A new large fire complex southern Rio Arriba County of north central New Mexico was producing a large dense smoke plume which moved to the east and southeast during the afternoon. Thin to moderately dense smoke from this fire last evening was visible this afternoon extending to the northeast across the northwestern Texas and Oklahoma panhandles across Kansas to at least as far northeast as north central Missouri. The San Juan and Oak fires in Arizona also continue to produce moderately dense to thick smoke which fanned out as it moved in an easterly direction. West Canada/Montana/Wyoming/The Dakotas/Nebraska: Very dense smoke from the numerous wildfire complexes mainly across the NW Territories of western Canada, continues to drop south covering much of source areas as well as N Alberta, far NW Saskatchewan. By later this afternoon and early evening, smoke of varying density was also clearly visible covering a good portion of Montana east of the Continental Divide, northeastern Wyoming, most of the Dakotas, and northern Nebraska. The thickest part of this smoke was moderately dense to thick and was located over Montana. Earlier this morning, some thin smoke was seen drifting east over Nunavut and northern Hudson Bay but this continued to thin out and dissipate. An arm of moderately dense smoke also extends from main dense pocket over the Northwest Territories back toward the west-northwest covering the extreme northeastern corner of British Columbia, the southwest part of the Northwest Territories, and the southeastern Yukon Territories. Newfoundland/Atlantic Ocean: Cloudiness interfered with additional smoke detection this afternoon and evening, but earlier this morning it was noted that smoke from the Boreal Quebec fire a few days ago with contributions from the far SW Labrador/Quebec boarder fire continues to accelerate east in the jet stream along/north of 52N across the Atlantic. The cyclone to the southeast of Newfoundland continues to shear the smoke along the periphery in narrowing/concentrated bands across central Newfoundland (moderate to dense) with a broader area of thin to moderately dense smoke exiting Nova Scotia and covering much of the area between 55-65W south of Newfoundland but north of 35N... though likely to be turning eastward to undercut the base of the cyclone. DUST: Gulf of Mexico/Central US Gulf Coast: A well defined moderately dense Saharan Air Layer was still seen across the Western Gulf of Mexico, the eastern third of Texas, southeastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, western Tennessee, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle. Some lighter Saharan dust can also be seen across the Yucatan Peninsula along 21N to the Cuban coast. JS/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