DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z June 20, 2015
SMOKE Alaska/Yukon: An area of light density remnant smoke was observed over parts of southern/southeast Alaska and western Yukon. 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 evening. The smoke emitted by these wildfires is drifting east and moving slow due to the weak lower level flow. Northwest Territories/Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba: A broad area of thin remnant smoke was observed moving south and spanned from east-central Alberta eastward across central Saskatchewan to east-central Manitoba. 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. The wildfires in northern Alberta are producing light to moderate density smoke plumes and are moving to the southwest while wildfires in the Northwest Territories and northern Saskatchewan are producing light to moderate density smoke plumes which are moving to the southeast. Southwest US/Northwest Mexico: A large wildfire in southern California, called the Lake Fire, continues to produce a heavy density plume that has shifted more to the south this afternoon/evening. Light density remnant smoke from this wildfire encompasses southeastern California, Arizona, eastern Utah, southwestern Wyoming, western Colorado, western New Mexico and northwestern Mexico into Baja. Lake Fire has burned over 13000 acres in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California since June 17th. Another wildfire that was producing heavy density smoke, called Whitetail, was observed in southeastern Gila county in Arizona and was moving to the southeast into southwestern New Mexico. Several other 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 Alaska/Yukon: A large area of a diffuse unknown aerosol was observed over Alaska and western Yukon. This optically thin aerosol was slowly moving to the southeast 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, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama 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 southern Wisconsin, central 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 as far west as Nebraska. 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. -Cronin/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