DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1615Z July 20, 2014
US/Central and Eastern Canada: The expansive area of light to heavy dense smoke remains persistent across much of the central U.S. and majority of Canada this morning. Two areas of heavy dense smoke were analyzed over Missouri, eastern Iowa, Illinois, southern Wisconsin with the second area concentrated closer to the numerous wildfires burning in the Northwest Territories of northwest Canada. Smoke continues to spread south and east from this source region located just north of Great Slave Lake. Several embedded plumes of moderately dense smoke were observed across Canada and the central U.S. Areas where moderately dense smoke was seen included; Northwest Territories, northern Alberta and southwestern Nunavut; eastern Canada including Quebec and Newfoundland; and the most extensive moderately dense plume crossing northeastern Montana south and east to Lake Michigan and Illinois. In addition to the wildfires in northern Canada, several large wildfires continue to contribute to this massive area of smoke across the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon and Idaho). Western Canada: An area of light density smoke is analyzed stretching across northern British Columbia into southeastern Yukon Territory and southwestern Northwest Territories. This area of smoke may be from a combination of smoke from a cluster of wildfires along southern B.C. and some of the smoke that drifted westward from the massive plume associated with wildfires around the Great Slave Lake region. Bering Sea/western and southwest Alaska/Gulf of Alaska: A surge of remnant smoke is captured in GOES-West imagery extending from the Bering Sea south and east to the Gulf of Alaska. Looking at recent past imagery from the last few days, large smoke-producing fires located across Siberia are the likely source of this advancing smoke plume. Warren 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