DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 30, 2016
SMOKE: Far Northern California/Oregon/Washington/Southwestern Canada: A wildfire in far north central California was responsible for a large swath of moderately dense to thick smoke which spread to the north impacting the western part of Oregon, central and eastern Washington, and into southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta in Canada. Area from Idaho to the Great Lakes Region: Numerous wildfires in eastern Oregon, Idaho, western and southwestern Montana, and northwestern Wyoming were primarily the source of a very large mass of thin density smoke which covered much of the Northwestern and North Central US from Idaho to the western Great Lakes region. The thin density smoke also spread to the south and southwest over much of Wyoming, northwestern Colorado, and eastern Utah. Moderately dense to thick smoke was visible closer to the actual fires this afternoon and moving to the northeast. It should be noted though that cloudiness over portions of the Northwestern and North Central US did interfere with additional information on the extent and density of the smoke. California: The ongoing wildfires along the coastal portions of south central California were emitting locally dense smoke in the vicinity of the fires. A much larger surrounding area of thin density smoke fanned out both offshore to the southwest and farther inland to the northeast into central California. DUST: Alaska: A streak of aerosol which may be airborne glacial flour was visible moving to the southwest and offshore from a source in the far northern panhandle region of southeastern Alaska. 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