DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 11, 2015
SMOKE Western to Central US/Southwestern to South Central Canada: An extremely large mass of thin to moderate density smoke covers much of the Western and Central US with the smoke over the Central US becoming increasingly more thin and patchy. The thin to moderately dense smoke also extends into southwestern and south central Canada. Thick smoke was seen over northern California though cloudiness over the Western US did interfere with additional smoke density information. A good portion of this smoke is likely due to the significant fires burning in southwestern Oregon and northern California, though some contribution is also being provided by other fires in east Central California, as well as ones in Idaho, western Montana, and Washington. Western and Central Canada: Another region of thin to moderately dense smoke attributed mainly to the fires burning over northern Alberta and north of the Great Slave Lake covered a good deal of northwestern and north central Canada. Thicker smoke was confined closer to the fire locations. JS Earlier This Morning: SMOKE Northwestern and Northern Canada/Labrador Sea/Southern Greenland/North Atlantic: Detached smoke most likely from the fires burning in northwestern Canada with possible small contribution from Siberian fires extends east across far northern Quebec over the Labrador Sea, far southern Greenland, and over part of the far north Atlantic. 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