DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 12, 2015
SMOKE: Western and Central Canada/Northwest to Central US and south into the Mississippi Valley: A very large plume of mostly thin to moderate density smoke extends from the Northwest U.S (southwest and northeast Oregon, and Washington) into southwestern Canada through southern British Columbia and much of northern/central Alberta. The smoke moves farther towards Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, before extending back through the north central U.S. and is seen as far east as Michigan, Illinois and northwest Indiana and south as Oklahoma and Arkansas. Thicker plumes of moderately dense to dense smoke is seen in northern Montana, western/central Washington, east central Oregon and extending north into southern British Columbia/Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba and into northern Montana and most of North Dakota and west central Minnesota. A small slither is seen in western Ontario. The heaviest density smoke remains close to the wildfires in Montana and seen in northeast Montana, southeast Saskatchewan and western/central North Dakota. 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 southern portions of Hudson Bay and most of Ontario) is also likely due to more fires burning near Great Slave Lake. J Kibler 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