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