Thursday, July 24, 2014

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z July 25, 2014

SMOKE:
Canada/Northern US:
The wildfires burning in the Northwest Territories around Great Slave and
Great Bear Lakes are continuing to produce a large area of residual smoke
across central and eastern Canada.  Moderate to dense residual smoke is
moving north from the fires and then curves clockwise to the east and
then southeast across much of central/eastern Northwest Territories,
central/southern Nunavut, across northeast Manitoba most of Ontario into
the northern Great Lakes region and southern Quebec, just reaching into
northern New England.  The full northern extent of the smoke into the
Canadian Arctic is uncertain due to its far northern latitude.

Separate wildfires burning in central British Columbia were producing
a plume of moderately dense to dense smoke that was moving to the east
into east central BC.

US
Wildfires burning in central/eastern Nevada and in Utah were producing
moderate to dense smoke this evening. The smoke was moving quickly to
the northeast and extended into central Wyoming. Light residual smoke
from these fires from overnight and yesterday was also seen over much
of the central and southern Plains states where it then curled counter
clockwise over south Texas and spread into the northern Gulf of Mexico and
then turned to the northeast across the Southeast US. The smoke over the
southern Plains, the Gulf and the Southeast US was also likely mixing
with remnant smoke from the Canadian fires, Saharan dust and locally
generated sulfates.

Numerous fires over eastern Oregon and southwest Idaho were producing
mainly light smoke that remained relatively close to the source fires.

A ribbon of thin smoke was detected from the San Francisco Bay area
across northeast California, northwest Nevada, southern Idaho and into
eastern Montana. This is high level smoke from wildfires in Siberia.

DUST:
There was a small area of blowing dust seen over far southwest Kansas
and extreme southeast Colorado. This light dust was moving to the north.

Ruminski

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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.