DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 11, 2015
Canada/Northern Part of US from the Pacific Northwest to off the Northeast US Coast: A few wildfires scattered across portions of southwestern to south central Canada including a large concentration over northern Saskatchewan continued to burn resulting in a tremendous area of smoke which covered a good portion of Canada and the northern US from the Pacific Northwest across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes region to the Northeastern US and off the coast of the Northeast and Canadian Maritimes over the Atlantic. This vast areal coverage of smoke included patches of moderate to thick density smoke which were mainly confined to Canada with the exception of a swath of moderately dense to thick smoke which extended to the southeast from eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota across a portion of Wisconsin to lower Michigan. Alaska: Wildfires scattered primarily across central Alaska were emitting varying quantities of smoke which moved mainly to the west during the day. Moderately dense to thick smoke stretched from central Alaska to western Alaska. Saharan Dust and Other Aerosols: Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic Ocean/South Central to Southeastern US: An area of Saharan dust was seen moving west in satellite imagery over the Caribbean and southern Gulf of Mexico. The dust then spread to the northwest and north over the western Gulf of Mexico into the South Central US and eastward from there across the remainder of the Southeastern US to off the coast of the Carolinas and Georgia and over the Atlantic. While much of this aerosol over the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico is believed to be Saharan dust, it is possible that other aerosols are mixed in with the dust inland over the Southeastern US and off of the Carolina-Georgia coast. JS 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