DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 22, 2015
SMOKE: Western/Central US and South Central Canada: The prolific wildfires burning in the Western US are producing a tremendous amount of smoke this afternoon and evening that covers most of the western 2/3 of the country. Smoke from the wildfires in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana merges with the smoke from fires in northern and central California as the smoke reaches and crosses the northern and central Rockies and spreads eastward across the central and northern Plains into the upper Mississippi Valley and the western Great Lakes. A blanket of moderately dense to dense smoke stretched from the fire source in northern Washington eastward across northern Idaho and much of Montana across the Dakotas and Nebraska into Minnesota and Wisconsin. A separate plume of moderately dense to dense smoke extended from the fires in northern California and in the central Sierras eastward across Nevada and northern Utah into southern Wyoming. Northwest Montana: An area of light smoke from fires in Siberia was seen over northeast British Columbia north into Northwest Territories. Gulf of Alaska: An area of light smoke, also from the fires burning in Siberia, was seen over the northern Gulf of Alaska. DUST Oregon: A small plume of blowing dust was seen moving south from a dry lake bed in southwest Oregon. Southern California: A narrow plume of blowing dust was seen moving north from near the mouth of the Colorado River at the northern tip of the Gulf of California and reaching the California border. Washington: It is possible that there is blowing dust across portions of central Washington due to very strong and gusty winds. However, the thick smoke from the fires precludes detection of any dust. Ruminski 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