DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 31, 2016
SMOKE: California to the Central Plains: Several large wildfires in the western US (particularly south of Monterey in CA, north of Reno in western NV and west of Stanley ID) were producing large light smoke that have spread and cover much of the western US and extends into the central Plains. The smoke covers much of CA and NV and at least northern UT. Central and southern UT have extensive cloud cover which precludes smoke detection. The northern edge of the smoke from the CA and NV fires extends from southeast OR to southern ID. Embedded within these large areas of light smoke area moderately dense to dense smoke in closer proximity to the fires. These plumes were mainly extending to the east and northeast of the wildfires. Additional smoke from fires in ID were seen over central and northeast ID moving into western MT and northwest WY. Remnant light smoke from previous days burning was over eastern WY and northeast CO extending into KS. Pacific Northwest: An area of what is believed to be long distance smoke transported from wildfires in Siberia has now shifted eastward and was seen over the northwestern half of WA and into southeast British Columbia by sunset. Gulf of Alaska: Two patches of remnant smoke were seen over the northern Gulf of Alaska east of Kodiak Island and also southeast of the Kenai peninsula. Northern Canada: A broad area of light smoke was seen across a swath of northern Canada. It reached from northwest Northwest Territories east southeastward across Great Bear Lake into Nunavut to the western shore of Hudson Bay. A separate patch of light smoke was over much of the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. DUST: Gulf of Mexico: Light density Saharan dust was still detected this evening over the southwest Gulf of Mexico in the Bay of Campeche. Nevada and southern California: An area of light to moderate blowing dust was seen being kicked up by strong winds over the Mojave desert in southern California. The dust was also mixing with smoke from wildfires in California which is making it difficult to determine the full extent of the dust vs smoke. Small areas of light blowing dust were seen in the sinks and dry lake beds of western Nevada. These were also mixing with extensive smoke in the region. Ruminski 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