DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z July 4, 2016
SMOKE: Northwestern to South Central Canada/Great Lakes Region: An extensive area of light density remnant smoke from fires in the Northwest Territories, northern Saskatchewan, northern Alberta, and northern Manitoba extends southeastward from northwest Nunavut to southern Ontario and the northern Great Lakes. Moderately dense to dense smoke is especially prevalent over the Northwest Territories directly north of the bulk of the fire activity. Numerous wildfires were seen in between cloud cover emitting light to heavy density smoke to the north in northern Saskatchewan and southeast of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Wildfires in northern Manitoba were producing light to moderate density smoke to the west. California/Nevada: Areas of thin to moderately dense remnant smoke were seen over parts of northern and southern California, and Nevada. This smoke is largely from the Trailhead fire in California, the fire named Pine in Ventura County California and the Hot Pot fire in northern Nevada. The Pine fire was fanning light to moderate density to the southwest and northwest while the Trailhead fire in the Sierra foothills continues to emit a light to moderate density smoke plume to the northeast into western Nevada. The Hot Pot brush fire in west-central Elko county Nevada was seen spreading quickly to the east-northeast in shortwave IR imagery. A light to heavy density smoke plume was emanating to the east-northeast from this brush fire although clouds obscured the full extent of this smoke to the east. DUST: Eastern Caribbean/Bahamas/South Florida: A large area of optically thick Saharan dust can be seen pushing westward across the Caribbean Sea from the Leeward Islands to just east of Jamaica. Other smaller separate areas of Saharan dust can also be seen crossing the Bahamas and far southern Florida/northwest Cuba although clouds began to obscure the extent of this dust in the afternoon and evening. -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