DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z August 3, 2015
SMOKE Northwestern Canada/Central Canada/North Central and Central US: Several areas of light to moderate density smoke are observed this morning from northwest Canada stretching southeastward across central parts of the country and into the northern US. Some of this area of smoke was generated by wildfires in central Alaska with the smoke now lingering over portions of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon Territory. Additional fires burning near Great Slave Lake have produced a fresh area of moderately dense to dense smoke northwest of the lake. Remnant Alaskan smoke and smoke from fires burning in Northwest Territories/Saskatchewan has spread southeast towards the US where it merges with other smoke that is from US/southwest Canada fires and continues on to the Mid-Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes Region. West Coast/Pacific Northwest/Southwest Canada/Central US: Multiple areas of light to moderately dense smoke in between cloud cover over north California, the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, and into the central US/Great Lakes Region was observed this morning. These areas of smoke originated from wildfires in north California, the Pacific Northwest, and southern British Columbia. A patch of very dense smoke was observed moving southeast across South Dakota. Light to moderate density smoke extended from the Pacific Northwest as far east as Indiana this morning and as far south as southern Arkansas. DUST Gulf of Mexico/South Texas/Mid-Atlantic/Northeast US: An enormous area of Saharan dust that is optically thick is visible from the Caribbean westward across most of the Gulf of Mexico and far southern Texas. Dust extends northeast as well along the eastern US seaboard before being hidden by clouds along a frontal boundary. North of this boundary additional aerosol is seen that could be a mixture of Saharan dust, smoke from western US fires, and other unknown aerosols. 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