DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 28, 2016
Smoke: Area from California to Idaho/Northern Utah: Moderately dense to thick smoke from the ongoing large wildfire south of Monterey covered a good portion of central California reaching the San Francisco Bay region. Thinner smoke from this fire also extended farther to the east and northeast across southern Oregon, northern and western Nevada, and at least as far east as southern Idaho and northern Utah before becoming mixed with the smoke from wildfires in Idaho and Wyoming. Idaho/Wyoming/Northern Colorado: Thick smoke was visible moving to the east across southern Idaho from a fire in Boise County to the northwest of the city of Boise Idaho. Farther to the east, a pair of large wildfire complexes in western Wyoming was emitting thick smoke which spread to the east and southeast across central and southern Wyoming. In northern Colorado close to the Wyoming border, a long standing wildfire erupted this afternoon resulting in a very dense smoke plume which moved to the southeast reaching a portion of the Denver metro area prior to sunset. Area from Idaho and Wyoming across the Central Plains to Illinois: A larger surrounding area of thin density smoke also attributed mainly to the fires burning in southwestern Idaho and western Wyoming could be seen from Idaho and Wyoming extending to the east and southeast over the Central Plains with the leading edge reaching across north central Illinois. Some cloudiness in this region did make precise delineation of the smoke difficult. Canada: Wildfires burning around Lake Athabasca in western Canada were emitting moderately dense to thick smoke which moved to the southeast and covered northern Saskatchewan. Farther to the east, thin to moderately dense smoke from these fires was wrapped up in the circulation associated with a weather system and was located over northern Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut and the western part of Hudson Bay. Alaska: Only one fire complex and associated relatively small smoke plume was visible moving to the north and northeast over north central Alaska. DUST: Caribbean/Western Atlantic: Once again, possible Saharan dust was observed in satellite imagery moving west across Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Cuba, a portion of the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and possibly reaching southern Florida. 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