DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 17, 2015
SMOKE: Western and Central US/Canada: A large area of light to heavy density smoke is visible being emitted from wildfires burning in the Pacific NW that stretches across the country. The heaviest smoke is visible around the large wildfire complexes located in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Medium-density smoke is visible throughout California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota into Ontario. Light density smoke is visible in a majority of central US moving east and south, affecting Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Another light density plume is seen in eastern Saskatchewan moving through northern Manitoba, southwestern Nunavut, through central Hudson Bay and into Northern Quebec. Northern and Central California: Areas of low to heavy density smoke from the cluster of fires in northern California is moving west to the Pacific along the coast. The fires in central California are also producing low to moderate density smoke heading northeast in to Nevada and joining the bigger smoke produced from the fires in northwestern US. Eastern US: Two areas of light to medium density remnant smoke are visible moving NE through the central US/Great Lakes region into the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast and offshore Atlantic Ocean. This smoke originates from the wildfires burning in the Pacific NW and Canada. Oegerle 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