DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0500Z August 1, 2016
SMOKE: Western US to the Central Plains and Southwest Canada: Several large wildfires in the western US continued to produce moderately dense to dense smoke this afternoon and evening. The largest wildfires were located in central California, northwest Nevada, central Idaho, and southern Washington. Remnant smoke from these and other fires cover much of the western US and still extends into the central Plains as well as southern Alberta/southern Saskatchewan. Moderate density remnant smoke was observed over portions of southern and western Montana, northern Wyoming, northwest Utah, and central California. There is also thin to moderately dense smoke observed over the Pacific Northwest/Vancouver Island that is likely from Asian wildfires. Northern and Central Canada: A broad area of light smoke was seen across northern and central Canada from fires over northern Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, and from Russia over the past few days. The smoke extended from southeast Alaska/Yukon Territory/northern British Columbia eastward across northern Canada to northern Hudson Bay. Moderately dense to dense smoke was seen drifting east across far northwestern Canada with this smoke likely being from Siberia. Alaska: Remnant smoke from fires in Russia could be seen moving eastward across northwest Alaska, the Bering Sea, and the Gulf of Alaska. A significant amount of cloud obscured the smoke near and south of the Aleutians. Most of the smoke was thin in density though some moderately dense smoke was present near the Bering Strait. DUST: Caribbean/Western Atlantic/Southeast US/Gulf of Mexico: Saharan dust can be seen moving westward across the Caribbean/tropical Atlantic spreading across the Bahamas, Florida, and the Southeast coast of the US. In addition a good deal of dust could be seen across the Gulf of Mexico and Bay of Campeche. Oregon: Dust from several dry lakebeds in the southern part of the state could be seen moving southward this evening between 0130-0300Z. 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