DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 7, 2015
SMOKE: Alaska to western and central Canada and from the Pacific Northwest to the northern and central Plains: Smoke from the ongoing large number of wildfires burning across Alaska and northern Canada was seen in an unbroken area from far eastern Siberia and the Bering Straight across northern and central Alaska through the eastern Yukon and western Northwest Territories then down along the spine of the Canadian Rockies and eastward across the central and southern Canadian prairies to Hudson Bay. Remnant smoke from the Saskatchewan and Alberta wildfires was also seen to have dropped southward into the northern and central US Plains states. Additionally, a band of smoke was seen from southwest British Columbia (including Vancouver Island and adjoining coastal waters) stretching eastward across Washington, northern Idaho, Montana and into the Dakotas. Embedded within this extremely large area of smoke are vast expanses of moderately dense and dense smoke. The most notable areas were seen from Montana eastward into the Dakotas and Nebraska and also from southern Alberta to central Ontario. There was also a significant area of moderately dense and dense smoke seen from central to northwest Alaska and beyond. Finally, another area of moderately dense to dense smoke was seen from Vancouver Island eastward along the Washington/British Columbia border. Eastern US: An area of light to moderately dense smoke from the Canadian wildfires was seen over much of the eastern US, mainly from the Appalachians eastward to the coast and extending off the coast of New England into the Canadian Maritimes. There were some embedded areas of moderately dense smoke, mostly over the eastern Great Lakes and New England. DUST: Gulf of Mexico/Southern U.S/Atlantic Ocean: An area of Saharan dust is once again seen this morning in GOES satellite imagery over the southwest Gulf of Mexico and portions of the western Caribbean. Dust is not discernible in the northwest Gulf and inland over east Texas and the lower Mississippi Valley, but aerosol models do show that the dust extends as far north as Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. A n arm of dust also extends northward across the Bahamas and then gently curves to the northeast well off the coast of the Carolinas. 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