Tuesday, June 21, 2016

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z June 22 2016

SMOKE:
Southwest US/Central Plains to the Lower Mississippi Valley:
Several wildfires burning in the southwestern US were responsible for a
expansive area of thin to moderately dense residual smoke which stretched
from off the southern California and northern Baja coast to southern
Wyoming, Colorado across the Central Plains and to the southeast likely
reaching at least as far southeast as the lower Mississippi Valley. Clouds
associated with convection obscured the full extent of this area of smoke
over Utah, Colorado, Arizona and southern California. The Beaver Creek
fire along the Wyoming/Colorado was producing a significant heavy density
smoke plume which was traveling east  along with the remnant smoke from
the wildfires in the US Southwest.  The Cedar fire was fanning light to
heavy density smoke to the north.

Canada/Midwest:
An expansive area of residual light to heavy density smoke was seen
rotating clockwise across northern British Columbia, the Northwest
Territories, Nunavut, northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba.  This area of smoke originated from wildfire activity over
central Alaska with most of the smoke coming from two wildfires southwest
of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. A thin ribbon of light
to moderate density residual smoke originating from wildfire activity
in Alaska extended from Alberta southeast across the Great Lakes region
into northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania and was traveling to the
southeast.

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.

-Cronin


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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.