DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1745Z June 18, 2015
SMOKE Alaska/Yukon: An area of light density remnant smoke was observed over the coastline of southern Alaska and the Gulf of Alaska. This area of remnant smoke originated from wildfires in southern Alaska and western Yukon. Wildfires in southeast Alaska and the western portions of the Yukon Territory continue to produce light to moderate density smoke. A low pressure system off the coast of British Columbia was pulling the majority of this smoke to the south and southwest. Ontario/Manitoba/Hudson Bay/Far Eastern Canada: A large area of thin remnant smoke was swinging eastward across eastern Manitoba, western Ontario, and western parts of Hudson Bay. Aerosol that is believed to be remnant dust is seen west of this area of smoke. Moderate density smoke is observed along the Ontario/Manitoba border and over northwest Ontario. This remnant smoke originated from wildfires that had been burning for weeks in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Another area of patches of thin smoke is observed over parts of far southeast Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, and the northern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence with the same origin source. Northwest Territories: An area of thin remnant smoke along with active new smoke plumes are observed southeast of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Cloud cover partially obscures the smoke this morning. Southwest US: Several areas of thin smoke with embedded moderately dense smoke are seen this morning over portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and northwest Mexico. This smoke is from several wildfires in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah. Additional moderately dense to dense smoke is coming from a large wildfire named the Lake Fire that has burned over 1000 acres in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California since yesterday. Southeast US: A shrinking area of thin smoke is seen off the coast of the Southeast US. The smoke originates from agricultural burns that have been taking place in the Southeast US and Lower Mississippi Valley regions over the last couple of days. There also appears to be elevated dust mixed with the area of smoke and the entire plume of aerosols is drifting east/southeast. DUST Gulf of Mexico: A large area of Saharan dust continues to be visible today moving west from the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico before being pulled northward across the western Gulf by Tropical Depression Bill, now over eastern Oklahoma. The optically thick dust appears to extend north over coastal Texas and Louisiana though cloud cover likely obscures some of its extent. Central Plains: An area of aerosol that is believed to be mostly elevated dust could be seen over parts of western Kansas, western Oklahoma, southeast Colorado, and the Texas Panhandle. The dust is being wrapped southward along the western edge of Tropical Depression Bill. Central/West Central Canada and North Central US: Areas of aerosol seen over large portions of southeast Nunavut, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories as well as far northern parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. Where the aerosol is not analyzed as smoke, most of this aerosol is thought to be elevated dust that likely has an Asian origin. The one exception is over Alberta where there could potentially be some smoke mixed in from a small number of fires in southern British Columbia yesterday. The dust is generally being pulled southeastward across Canada by a large weather system. -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