Saturday, August 16, 2014

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 17, 2014

N Canada/US Midwest/Mid-Atlantic US and E Canada:
The fires across northern Canada continue to rage this afternoon/evening
around Great Slave Lake in Northwest Territories and in northern
Saskatchewan. The smoke from these fires is melding with additional fires
in British Columbia. The smoke covers much of eastern British Columbia,
northern and eastern Alberta, nearly all of Saskatchewan and Manitoba
and most of Northwest Territories and southeast Nunavut in Canada. The
smoke dips south into the northern Mississippi Valley and the western
and central Great Lakes states. Broad areas of moderate and dense smoke
were detected over central and northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba and
southern Northwest Territories. A separate patch of light smoke was seen
off the mid Atlantic coast. Another area of light to moderate smoke was
detected east of Labrador in the Labrador Sea and lifting toward the
Davis Straight.

Western US:
Large fire complexes such as the July, Happy Camp and Coffee fires in
northwest California continue to emit moderate to thick smoke. Remnant
smoke from these and other fires was seen over much of the Pacific
northwest covering much of Washington and Oregon, northwest California
and southern Idaho.

DUST:
A broad area of light dust of Saharan origin was seen across most of
the western Caribbean and the southern Gulf of Mexico.

A few plumes of light blowing dust were kicked up this afternoon/evening
along the coastal areas of northeast Mexico just south of Brownsville
Texas. The dust was moving to the north-northwest into far southern Texas.

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.