DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z July 16, 2016
SMOKE: Alaska and Northwest/West/Central Canada: Large amounts of wildfire activity located in North-Central and Central Alaska continues to produce thin to moderately dense smoke over the majority of northern Alaska that extends east and into northern portions of the Yukon Territory and western Northwest Territories. Numerous wildfires also burning throughout the Northwest Territories have also produced smoke though cloud cover in the region was likely obscuring much of it. Even so an extensive area of remnant thin smoke with embedded areas of moderately dense smoke does extend east southeast over northeast British Columbia, northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, northern and central Manitoba, northern Ontario, and across the southern extent of Hudson Bay to western Quebec. Additional thin tendrils of remnant smoke appeared to be wrapping southeast across Lake Superior, the U.P. of Michigan, and Wisconsin. Labrador Sea/Canadian Maritimes/Northeast US and Mid-Atlantic Coasts/North Atlantic: Remnant thin smoke can be seen over the North Atlantic waters along the coasts of the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast US stretching northeast across the Canadian Maritimes. This smoke may be either from fires in the western US or from fires in northwest Canada and could also be mixed with elevated dust. Thin smoke is also wrapping into a low pressure system that is positioned between Labrador and Greenland with the smoke more likely to be from the northwest Canada/Alaska fires. Southwest US: Remnant smoke can be seen over portions of Arizona/Utah/Colorado/Utah and far northern Mexico/far west Texas. Wildfires in southwest New Mexico and northern Arizona are largely responsible for this smoke. Moderately dense smoke was seen moving east across southwest Colorado this morning. DUST: Western Gulf of Mexico/Southern and Central Plains: Saharan dust continues to be observed moving north and through the western Gulf of Mexico with the greatest density over north Texas into the Central Plains. Sheffler 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