DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 8, 2015
SMOKE Western US/Southwestern Canada: A rather large mass of thin density smoke emanating from fires burning in northern California, southwestern Oregon, and east central California moved to the east and northeast during the day extending out across portions of California, Oregon, Nevada, southern Idaho, northern Utah, and into Wyoming. Moderate to thick density smoke was visible over northern California, southern Oregon, and northwestern Nevada. An area of primarily thin density with some embedded patches of moderate density smoke likely originating from fires in Washington and far northern Idaho, spread to the north and northeast covering eastern Washington, northern Idaho, as well as portions of southern British Columbia and Alberta in southwestern Canada. Nevada/Arizona/Utah: A large fire broke out near the western Arizona-southeastern California border (just south of the Nevada border) with a very dense smoke plume quickly moving off to the northeast over northwestern Arizona toward southwestern Utah. Alaska: A batch of fires located mainly over central Alaska continued to burn emitting smoke of varying density which moved to the east and northeast during the day reaching the northern portions of the Yukon in far northwestern Canada and out over the Beaufort Sea. Cloudiness in the vicinity of the fires limited additional more accurate information concerning the smoke density over central Alaska. Hawaii: A fire on the northern part of the Big Island produced a smoke plume of mainly thin density which moved to the west and over the Pacific. Northwestern and Northern Canada: Thin to possibly moderately dense smoke from fires around Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes over northwestern Canada extended in a relatively narrow swath to the east and northeast stretching across north central Canada reaching the northern portion of Hudson Bay. Thicker smoke covered the area around and to the north of Great Slave Lake. Northeast Canada: A broad detached area of light density smoke likely originating from the fires over northwestern Canada was seen over northeast Quebec and northern Newfoundland and Labrador, crossing the Davis Straight reaching the southern coast of Greenland. 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