DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 5, 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 moderately dense to heavy density smoke that ranges across most of central Canada, over Hudson Bay and into parts of western Quebec. The smoke is seen extending southward into the central U.S. near the Rockies and northern Plains, and reaches as far south as northern fringes of Texas and extreme southern Arkansas. Smoke is seen stretching northeastward over the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes region and even parts of northwestern Vermont before extending further over southern Quebec and crossing over New Brunswick and into the Northwest Atlantic just south of Newfoundland. As mentioned before much of the smoke is moderately dense with embedded pockets of heavy density smoke, but cloud cover across some areas, specifically over central Canada, Quebec, southeastern U.S. and portions of the Northeast, make the overall extent of the smoke difficult to discern. This also includes much of Alaska, though smoke from the wildfires occurring across central Alaska generally is seen from central and eastern Alaska and moving into the Yukon Territory, with smoke seen further south over much of British Columbia as well. Pacific Northwest: Wildfires burning in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia continue to produce smoke that currently appears to be heading eastward towards the much larger smoke plume associated with the Canadian wildfires. The areas of smoke further north over British Columbia and along the British Columbia coast are likely from fires in Alaska and have 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/Southern 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 southeastern Texas, spreading inland towards Oklahoma and Arkansas where it likely mixes with long transport smoke from the Canadian wildfires. The Saharan dust also extends along much of the eastern Florida coastline as well as the Gulf Coast before turning northeastward across north Florida and along the Southeastern US coast towards the North Carolina and Virginia shores before extending further eastward out over the Atlantic. An area of Saharan dust can also be seen moving north across the Bahamas and far southern Florida. Heeps 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