DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z June 19, 2015
SMOKE Alaska/Yukon: An area of light density remnant smoke was observed over parts of southern/southeast Alaska. This area of remnant smoke has originated from wildfires in southern Alaska and western Yukon over the past several days. Wildfires in southeast Alaska and the western portions of the Yukon Territory continue to produce light to moderate density smoke this morning. Northwest Territories/Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Ontario/Hudson Bay: A broad area of thin to moderate density remnant smoke is observed stretching from central Ontario/southwest Hudson Bay westward across Manitoba/central Saskatchewan/north Alberta. On the far western end of the plume of remnant smoke, elevated dust appears to be mixing in as it moves east across central/southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan. Fires actively burning in northern Alberta and southeast of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories are the cause of most of this remnant smoke. Southwest US/Northwest Mexico: A large wildfire in southern California, called the Lake Fire, continues to produce a significant amount of dense smoke that fans out across nearly all of Arizona, southern Utah, western New Mexico, extreme southwest Colorado, and northwestern Mexico. The Lake Fire has burned over 11000 acres in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California since June 17th. Several smaller wildfires in central and eastern Arizona that have continued to burn over the past few days have produced light to moderate density smoke plumes that have merged into the larger mass of smoke from the Lake Fire. Southeast US: Two small areas of thin remnant smoke are seen along and just off the coast of the Southeast US. The smoke originates from agricultural burns that have been taking place in the Southeast US states of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina yesterday. Elevated dust may also be mixed with the area of smoke and additional elevated dust is seen further offshore and to to the north of this area. DUST Gulf of Mexico/South-central US: A large area of Saharan dust continues to stream west from the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico before being pulled northward across the western Gulf by Tropical Depression Bill now over the Missouri/Arkansas border. The optically thick dust appears to extend north over the eastern portions of Texas, far southeast Oklahoma, western Louisiana, northwest Mississippi, and southern and eastern Arkansas before cloud cover begins to obscure its northeastward extent. Midwest/Central US: Aerosol that is believed to be elevated dust is seen across much of the Midwest and Central US that is not cloud covered. The dust appears to cover parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. Some of this dust may have an Asian origin having traveled across the Pacific and southeastward across western Canada. More than likely though, much of the dust has a Saharan Desert origin, having traveled across the Atlantic, northeastward around TD Bill, and now being wrapped back to the west across Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, south Wisconsin, south Minnesota. Mid-Atlantic/Southeast US: Elevated dust is seen moving eastward off the Mid-Atlantic coast. Much of this dust is of Saharan origin again and has been drawn northeast from the western Gulf of Mexico by TD Bill. Remnant dust of a unknown source also continues to be present within the subtropical high off the Southeast US coast. -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