DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 20, 2014
Canada/US Wildfires in northern British Columbia are producing locally dense smoke that becomes remnant light density as it moves east over Alberta, before combining with smoke from wildfires in Saskatchewan. Collectively, this smoke currently extends south over the US central plains and east over the Great Lakes Region and as far east as the New England seaboard. The smoke is moderately dense to heavy over southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Iowa. There are also ongoing fires in northern California and the Pacific northwest states that are producing light smoke moving east over Montana and into the northern and central plains. From this morning... Arctic Territories of Canada: A large area of very thin smoke can be seen across the Arctic Ocean, and N Canada, likely from smoke that became trans-polar from sources in Canada a week or so ago, though contributions from Siberian fires cannot be ruled out. This smoke covers much of Yukon, NW Territories and Nunavut north of 64N as far east as Southhampton Island and E Prince of Wales Island. E Canada/Maine: A few very narrow bands of very thin smoke can be seen in the main stream of the jet southwest of the cyclone over SW Newfoundland. The most significant band was seen from NE of Montreal across central ME, just off the south tip of NS into the Atlantic. UPDATED FOR BLOWING DUST Blowing dust is originating from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California and it is moving east over the Salton Sea, observed as far east as the Arizona border through sunset. Ramirez/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