DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 21 2016
SMOKE: Southwest US: Several wildfires burning in the southwestern US were responsible for a large area of thin to moderately dense smoke which stretched from off the southern California and northern Baja coast to southern Wyoming and Colorado. A couple of patches of dense smoke were visible from northeastern Utah to northern Colorado, over southern Nevada, and extending to the north from the large fire located over southern Navajo County in east central Arizona. Central Plains to the Lower Mississippi Valley: Thin density smoke from the fires over the Southwestern US spread to the east across the Central Plains and to the southeast likely reaching at least as far southeast as the lower Mississippi Valley. South Central Canada to the Far North Central US: A narrow swath of thin to moderately dense smoke was seen spreading to the southeast from central Saskatchewan to southern Manitoba and across the border over northern Minnesota. The smoke then moved farther to the southeast over Lake Superior and the UP of Michigan as well as southern Ontario and southern Quebec. This smoke likely originated from a few larger fires burning in the Northwest Territories to the southwest of Great Bear Lake. Western and Northwestern Canada: A large region of smoke of varying density was visible extending from British Columbia northward to the southern part of the Yukon and eastward from there over a portion of the Northwest Territories. The smoke then curves to the southeast over northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba. DUST: Atlantic/Caribbean... Some thin density aerosol which may be Saharan dust was seen over a portion of the Atlantic south of the Bahamas extending over Cuba and the Caribbean to the Yucatan. JS 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