DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 4, 2015
SMOKE West Coast/Pacific Northwest/Southwest Canada/Central US: A very large mass of smoke of varying density was visible moving to the north and northeast across northern California, much of Oregon and Washington, northern Idaho, and into the southern portions of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan in southwestern Canada. From there, the smoke spread to the southeast across Montana and over the Northern and Central Plains to at least as far east as the Ohio Valley. The thickest smoke was present closer to the largest and most active wildfires over northern California, western Oregon, as well as western and northern Washington, and far southwestern Canada. However, some of at least moderate density was detected from southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan across Montana to the Central Plains. Alaska: Several fires over central Alaska were emitting primarily thin to moderately dense smoke plumes which spread to the east during the day. Dense smoke was confined to very near the actual fires. Northwestern Canada: Fires between Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes in northwestern Canada were responsible for patches of moderately dense to thick smoke which moved mainly to the west and north during the day. Gulf of Mexico: Smoke from platforms in the Bay of Campeche was detected moving to the west and northwest during the late afternoon and evening. DUST Gulf of Mexico/South Texas: Some patches of what is believed to be Saharan dust was visible prior to sunset over portions of the Caribbean westward across the Gulf of Mexico and into far southern Texas and northern Mexico. Some of the Saharan dust seen earlier this morning was still visible off the Southeast and Middle Atlantic U.S. coast, though it was being obscured by frontal cloudiness in this region. 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