DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2000Z July 3, 2015
SMOKE: Alaska/Canada/Central to Eastern U.S: An enormous amount of wildfires occurring across central portions of Alaska as well as western/central Canada continues to create a prolific amount of generally moderately dense to very dense smoke. This smoke is seen traveling northeast and south/southwest across Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, and the Beaufort Sea. Smoke also wraps west from the Northwest Territories back toward the Yukon and stretches southeast/east across Canada large portions of Canada. The large area of smoke extends into the U.S. from eastern Montana to the Great Lakes region and as far south as Kansas, Missouri, Illinois. The smoke stretches eastward over the Midwest and into western Pennsylvania/western New York and across the Mid-Atlantic region before turning northeast along the coast of the Northeastern U.S. to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Pacific Northwest: Patches of thin smoke to moderately dense smoke are visible over portions of northeast California, northern Nevada, northwest Utah, Oregon, eastern Washington, Idaho, and into Montana/northwest Wyoming as well as southern British Columbia. Several wildfires burning in Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia are the main culprits for this remnant and newly produced smoke that is generally moving eastward. Greenland: A plume of light density smoke is visible moving SE along and off the west coast of Greenland into the northern Atlantic Ocean. This smoke is remnant from the wildfires burning in Alaska and Canada and is likely several days old. DUST: Gulf of Mexico/Southeastern U.S/Atlantic Ocean: An expansive area of Saharan dust is seen again today much of the Gulf of Mexico, spreading inland over southeast Texas and south Louisiana before becoming difficult to discern across Mississippi/Alabama from cloud cover with the dust also extending along and across the Florida Panhandle, North Florida, and up the coast of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. A lengthy stripe of Saharan dust is also seen off the eastern shore of Florida and extending to the northeast off the eastern seaboard east of the Outer Banks before become indiscernible due to cloud cover. 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