DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 4, 2015
SMOKE: Alaska/Canada/Central to Eastern U.S: The epic number of large wildfires continue to burn over vast stretches of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta with additional fires in southern Northwest Territories, northeast British Columbia and northwest Manitoba. These fires are producing an enormous amount of smoke that cover most of central Canada from Hudson Bay to the Rockies with the smoke dipping down into the central US, the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes States and into the Northeast and Mid Atlantic before moving off the coast. Much of this vast region is covered in moderately dense to dense smoke. Clouds cover much of Alaska this evening and this is precluding detailed detection of the fires and smoke. But the smoke generally extends from southwest Alaska northeastward through the interior north of the Alaska Range and into the Yukon Territory. Pacific Northwest: Several fires burning in Washington and Oregon area producing patches of smoke that together encompass mush of the Washington. Oregon and into Idaho and western Montana. The smoke is moderately dense to dense near the fires. Additional fires over southwest British Columbia were also producing smoke plumes that were mostly moving to the east into southern British Columbia. DUST: Gulf of Mexico/Southeastern U.S/Atlantic Ocean: Similar to earlier today, an expansive area of Saharan dust is seen over much of the Caribbean and extending into the Gulf of Mexico. The dust also spreads 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. Ruminski 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