DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 26, 2016
SMOKE: California: Thin density smoke from the Erskin Fire in northern Kern County of southern California was visible over portions of southern Nevada, southern and central California, and offshore of southern California. A small patch of much thicker smoke was seen very close to the actual fire. Central US: Thin density smoke from the Beaver Creek Fire in far northern Colorado covered southeastern Wyoming, western Nebraska, northwestern Kansas, and northeastern Colorado. Some of the thinner density smoke from this fire may also extend farther to the east though cloudiness prevents additional information on smoke extent from satellite imagery. Thin density smoke from fires in the Black Hills including the Kara Creek Fire in northeastern Wyoming and the Crow Creek Fire in western South Dakota could be seen stretching from northeastern Wyoming across South Dakota to as far east as southwestern Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, and Iowa. An unknown aerosol farther to the east from eastern Kansas to the Ohio Valley region may also contain some smoke from the fires in the Black Hills and northern Colorado though none of the smoke forecasting models are indicating this. Northwestern to South Central Canada/North Central US: A large area of leftover thin density smoke which is attributed to wildfires earlier last week over the Northwest Territories and some recent wildfire activity over Alberta and Saskatchewan in west central Canada was visible stretching from portions of the Northwest Territories and southern Nunavut southward over eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan to northern Montana, northern North Dakota, and northern Minnesota. DUST: Caribbean: A region of possible Saharan dust could be seen spreading to the west and entering the Caribbean Sea. 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