DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2000Z July 5, 2015
SMOKE: Alaska/Canada/Central to Eastern U.S: The tremendous 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 northern/central Manitoba. These fires are producing an enormous amount of smoke that ranges across most of central Canada, across parts of Hudson Bay and into parts of western Quebec. The smoke is seen extending southward into the central U.S., into the Mississippi Valley, through the Great Lakes, Ohio and Tennessee Valley, across the Mid Atlantic and Northeast US. The smoke reaches as far south as northern Arkansas, western Tennessee and as far west as eastern Montana and the Dakotas. 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 Mid Atlantic, make the overall extent of the smoke difficult to discern. One pocket of heavy smoke can be seen over parts of southern Saskatchewan, central Manitoba and NW Ontario moving northeast across central Canada. Another pocket is seen over parts of northern Saskatchewan, southeast Northwest Territories and western Nunavut moving east over northern Canada. The final heavy pocket is seen over the Great Lakes region, eastern Ontario, western Quebec and into western New York and into far northeast US. In Alaska, the smoke from the wildfires can be seen across northern/eastern Alaska and moving into the Yukon and Northwest Territory, but cloud cover is blocking the full view over these regions. Pacific Northwest: Wildfires burning in British Columbia continue to produce smoke that currently is moving southward along the British Columbia and Pacific Coastline and into the Northwest US including Washington State. An area can be see extending east along the Canada/US border including Alberta, Saskatchewan and into western Ontario and along northern Idaho and Montana. 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 couple of days 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 western and central Gulf of Mexico. The dust spreads to the coastline along southeastern Texas, but difficult to see how far it spreads north due to clouds in the southern/central Plains. The Saharan dust also extends across southern Florida and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. Extends along much of the eastern Florida coastline before turning northeastward across north Florida and along the South Carolina and North Carolina coastline before extending further eastward over the Atlantic. An area of Saharan dust can also be seen moving north across the Bahamas. J Kibler 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