DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z August 29, 2015
SMOKE Northwestern and Central US/Gulf of Mexico/Great Lakes/Ohio Valley/Southern Canada: An expansive area of thin to moderately dense smoke covers much of the central US and southern Canada as well as portions of the northwestern US, though clouds were partially obscuring much of that region. Smoke stretches southward through the Central US into Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas as well as an extension reaching far northeastern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico. The smoke wraps northeastward then along a frontal boundary towards the Ohio/Tennessee Valleys though scattered cloud cover made detection more difficult. All of this smoke is originating from large wildfires that continue to burn in the northwestern US states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. A Pacific storm system moving across that region today will hopefully help to reduce the fire activity. Northeast US/Southeast and East Canada: Areas of thin smoke area seen over southern Quebec and off the coast of Labrador. A larger area of thin to moderately dense smoke is observed from Maine eastward off the coast and northeast across Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This smoke is likely from fires in the northwestern US. Gulf of Alaska: A stream of thin smoke with embedded pockets of moderate density smoke can be seen coming across the Aleutians and southwest Alaska extending southeastward over the Gulf of Alaska. Some of this smoke has wrapped towards the coast of British Columbia. This smoke is likely from Siberian wildfires. DUST: Florida: An aerosol seen stretching from western Cuba northeastward across Florida and off the coast of the Southeast US is believed to be Saharan dust that is being pushed northwest by the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika. UNKNOWN AEROSOL: Some aerosol is seen off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic region. This aerosol may be a mixture of remnant smoke from northwestern US wildfires and elevated dust along the East Coast. Other unknown aerosols may also be mixed in. 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