DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 12, 2015
SMOKE: Western and Central Canada/Western to Central US: A very large plume of thin density smoke extends from the western U.S (generally northern California, Oregon, and Washington) into southwestern Canada through southern British Columbia and much of Alberta. The plume gets caught in the amplified ridge axis and turns towards Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and western Ontario, before extending back through the north central U.S. and is seen as far as Minnesota, northern Iowa, and Nebraska. Thicker plumes of moderately dense smoke were seen in northern Montana, western Washington/western Oregon and extending just offshore, as well as eastern Oregon/western Idaho, and central California. The heaviest density smoke remains close to the wildfires in Montana, eastern Oregon, and western Idaho. Much of this smoke is due to a large outbreak of fires throughout much of the western U.S. Some of the smoke in central Canada (especially smoke as far north as the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and western portions of Hudson Bay) is also likely due to more fires burning near Great Slave Lake. A large amount of cloud cover is present over a large portion of the western U.S, especially parts of western California/western Oregon as well as further north into central Canada which makes is difficult to discern the full extent of the smoke. Heeps 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