DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0500Z July 21, 2016
SMOKE: Canada/Great Lakes Region/Northeast: A very large mass of light to moderate density smoke was seen over much of eastern Canada, the Canadian Maritimes,the eastern Great Lakes, the New England region, and parts of the Mid-Atlantic as well as off the coast of the Canadian province of Labrador. This remnant smoke is from wildfires that were burning in northwest Canada and Alaska over the past week that has been dragged south into the upper level trough over eastern Canada. Due to cloud coverage, the full extent of smoke is obscured. Further west...additional patches of thin smoke are seen this evening over portions of the Northwest Territories, Alberta, and Saskatchewan between areas of thick cloud cover. Again this is remnant smoke from northwest Canadian fires from the past week. A few actively burning and smoke producing fires were able to be analyzed in northern Saskatchewan. North Central US: An area of light density smoke leftover from the ongoing wildfires over portions of the Western US and in particular from the Cliff Creek Fire in western Wyoming was visible stretching across South Dakota, southern Minnesota, and western Wisconsin. Alaska: Cloudiness significantly limited fire and smoke detection from satellite imagery today. Light density smoke continued to be visible moving to the south over the Gulf of Alaska from a handful of fires in the Kenai Peninsula and another wildfire in the southeast corner of the state. DUST: Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean Sea/Puerto Rico: An area of Saharan dust could wherever cloud free skies were present moving west over the central/eastern Caribbean Sea. Another area of Saharan dust was seen traveling over Puerto Rico and moving more west-northwest towards the Bahamas. In addition, another wave of Saharan dust was present over the southern Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche. Great Plains/Midwest/Western Great Lakes/South Central Canada: An area of possibly mixed Saharan/Southwest US dust was seen spanning from north/northwest Texas northward across the Central and Northern Plains states as well as the Midwest stretching even further northeast then across much of Lakes Michigan/Superior and over far southern Manitoba/Ontario. A small amount of remnant smoke from western US wildfires may be mixed in over parts of the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. UNKNOWN AEROSOL: Ohio Valley/Mid-Atlantic: An unknown aerosol is seen this evening stretching from the Ohio Valley southeast across West Virginia/Virginia/Maryland and Delaware extending over Atlantic waters south of Long Island and mixing with the larger area of remnant smoke. While the origin of this aerosol is unknown, aerosol models point to this being mostly sulfates. 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