DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 7, 2016
SMOKE: Canada: A large band of thin to moderately dense leftover smoke attributed to numerous wildfires burning over the past several days across northwestern Canada was visible extending from the Canadian arctic southward over the Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia, much of Alberta, and curving to the southeast over central and southern Saskatchewan. A separate swath of light density smoke oriented in a west to east band covered the region from the Labrador Sea to Nunavut. This area of smoke also originated from the fires in northwestern Canada and rotated cyclonically around a strong ridge positioned over northeast Nunavut. Alaska: Significant cloudiness over Alaska limited both fire and smoke information from satellite imagery. JS Earlier This Morning... DUST: Caribbean Sea/Gulf of Mexico/Puerto Rice/Florida/Southeast US Coast: An expansive area of optically thick Saharan dust continues to be seen pushing westward across the Caribbean Sea from the Leeward Islands west across Puerto Rico to Cuba. Additionally lesser amounts of Saharan dust can be seen over most of the Gulf of Mexico, Bay of Campeche/Yucatan Peninsula, Florida, western Cuba, the Bahamas, and along/off the coast of the Southeast US. A negligible amount of smoke observed yesterday from oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche may have drifted northwest and mixed with the elevated dust over the northwest Gulf of Mexico. Southern/Central/Northern Plains States: Elevated dust can be seen in morning GOES-W imagery stretching from Central Texas northward and ending around central Kansas. The bulk of this elevated dust is of African origin having moved west across the Atlantic and eventually wrapping northward through the western Gulf of Mexico. -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