DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1815Z August 10, 2015
SMOKE West Coast/Pacific Northwest and North Central US/Southwestern and South Central Canada: A large area of light to moderately dense smoke is present across much of the western US and southwest/south central Canada. Smoke extends north/northeast from central California to southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwest Manitoba. The smoke then spills southeastward across parts of the north central US including Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the U.P. of Michigan. The bulk of this smoke is from numerous wildfires burning in northwest California and southwest Oregon that is being carried to the northeast. There may also still be some remnant Siberian smoke in the mix, particularly across south central Canada and the north central US. Oregon/Idaho/Nevada/Utah/Wyoming/Colorado: Remnant smoke from the Willow wildfire near the Arizona/California border and smoke possibly from other Arizona fires yesterday continues to drift to the northeast and now extends from eastern Oregon east across southern Idaho, northeast Nevada, north Utah, southern Wyoming, north Colorado, and southwest Nebraska. Northwestern and Northern Canada/Labrador Sea/Southern Greenland/North Atlantic: An expansive area light with embedded moderately dense smoke is seen over the northern Yukon territory, much of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, central and northeast British Columbia, north Alberta, north Saskatchewan, north Manitoba, and northern Hudson Bay. The smoke extends east across far northern Quebec over the Labrador Sea, far southern Greenland, and over part of the far north Atlantic. Much of the smoke, particularly over northwest Canada is believed to be from wildfires near Great Slave Lake and some smoke from US fires lifting up from the south has likely mixed with other (possibly Siberian) smoke over parts of western Canada. Smoke further east across north Canada is a mixture of Siberian smoke and northwest Canadian smoke. DUST Aerosol over the western Gulf of Mexico and south central US/lower Mississippi River Valley is thought to be Saharan dust. This dust extends north to southern Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama before it disappears beneath clouds. Some remnant dust may also be present further north over parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa though scattered clouds make distinct determination of the aerosol difficult. 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