DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 30, 2016
SMOKE: Western and South Central US: A large expanse of thin density smoke attributed especially to the larger wildfires over coastal central California (north of Monterey), western Nevada, southwestern Idaho, western Wyoming, northern Utah, and northern Colorado was spread over a significant portion of the Western US from southern Arizona over much of California, Oregon, northern Nevada, and southern Idaho. The smoke then extended to the east and southeast over the central Rockies to the Central and Southern Plains. Moderately dense to thick smoke from the fire north of Monterey was present over much of central and northern California. Moderately dense to thick smoke from the fire north of Boise Idaho along with the fires in northern Utah, western Wyoming, and northern Colorado combined to stretch from southern Idaho to northeastern Colorado. Canada: A very extensive region of thin density smoke associated with ongoing wildfires both to the north of the Great Slave Lake and around Lake Athabasca covered a large expanse from northwestern to central and south central Canada. Moderately dense to thick smoke was located near and north of the fires near Lake Athabasca and covered northern Saskatchewan and the southeastern part of the Northwest Territories. Farther to the northwest, a larger area of moderately dense to thick some from the fires north of the Great Slave Lake extended well to the north over the Northwest Territories and also to the east toward Nunavut. Alaska/Western Canada: A very long swath of aerosol possibly composed of primarily thin density smoke extended from the north Pacific well south of the Aleutians to central and northern British Columbia. This possible smoke had become entrained within a weather system and may have origins to fires in Russia. Farther to the north, a patch of thin to moderate density possible smoke was located over the Gulf of Alaska and extending inland over south central Alaska including Anchorage. This possible smoke also likely had origins to fires in Russia. DUST: Caribbean/Western Atlantic: Once again, possible light density Saharan dust was observed in satellite imagery moving west across Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Cuba, a portion of the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and reaching southern Florida and the eastern and south central Gulf of Mexico along with the Yucatan Peninsula. 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