DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2000Z 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 very far southward into the central US, the Ohio Valley, and Great Lakes region. The smoke extends northeast then across southeast Canada before crossing Maine/Nova Scotia and stretching northeast across the Northwest Atlantic. Much of this vast region is covered in moderately dense to dense smoke though increased cloud cover today likely obscures the overall extent in some areas. Clouds cover much of southern Alaska this morning and this is precluding detailed detection of some 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, Oregon, and British Columbia continue to produce patches of smoke this morning with remnant smoke spreading eastward across northern Idaho/northwest Montana/southern British Columbia. Remnant smoke is also pressing east from southern Oregon into south Idaho and an area of thin smoke exists along the coast of Washington extending northward along the coast of British Columbia. The smoke further north along the British Columbia coast is likely from fires in Alaska and has been traveling southward over the last day or two. Greenland: A large area of thin to moderately dense smoke is retrograding westward from Greenland back towards Labrador and eastern Nunavut. This is remnant smoke from the Canadian/Alaskan wildfires that is several days old which has become trapped across the Arctic. DUST: Gulf of Mexico/Southeastern U.S/Atlantic Ocean: 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 extends along the Gulf Coast before turning northeastward across north Florida and along the Southeast US coast. An area of Saharan dust can also be seen moving north across the Bahamas and far southern Florida. 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