DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 31, 2014
Central to North Central US: A large area of aerosol can be seen this evening extending from North Dakota and northwest Minnesota southward across the northern and central Plains to Oklahoma and far northern Texas. Some of this aerosol, specifically from western Nebraska northward across the western Dakotas, can be be positively identified as remnant smoke from the wildfires burning in northwest California. Much of the rest of the aerosol seen is believed to be elevated dust especially further south and east across east Colorado/west Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and most of the Midwest that is not covered by clouds. Western US: A plume of thin to moderately dense smoke extends eastward along the Oregon/Nevada border from the northwest California wildfires. Additional thin smoke could be seen within and beneath clouds as it wrapped northeast across southern Idaho and far northwest Wyoming. Newfoundland/North Atlantic: An area of thin smoke could be seen moving eastward off the Canadian coast. This is likely remnant smoke from western Canada fires. Western/Central Canada: A large area of thin smoke could be seen from the western Great Slave Lake area south and southeastward across Alberta to western Saskatchewan. Some moderately dense smoke was present over the southwest part of the Northwest Territories. Elsewhere, thin smoke was seen east and northeast of Great Slave Lake and just south of Hudson Bay. The majority of this smoke is from fires in central and western Canada. Sheffler 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