DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z September 4, 2016
SMOKE: North Central US/Northeastern US/South Central and Southeastern Canada: Not quite as much leftover smoke was visible this evening as earlier this morning, but a sizable swath of mainly thin density smoke leftover from all of the ongoing fire activity in the Western US could be seen stretching from western Iowa northward over Minnesota and into south central Canada. The smoke then spread to the northeast and east across Ontario and Quebec and eventually turned to the southeast reaching into northern New England. Utah/Idaho/Wyoming/Montana: Significant cloudiness interfered with smoke detection around many of the previously active wildfires though breaks in the clouds did allow for viewing of a moderately dense to thick plume which emanated from a fire in west central Utah and moved to the northeast across the Salt Lake City region and into southwestern Wyoming. California/Oregon/Nevada: Thick smoke from the Gap fire in far northern California blanked northern California while a surrounding area of thin dnesity smoke spread to the northeast over northwestern Nevada and southeastern Oregon. The smoke may extend farther to the northeast, but cloudiness prevented detection. The thin density smoke from the Gap fire also moved southward into central California and offshore over the coastal Pacific. Over southern California, a stripe of thin density smoke was visible moving south toward the Los Angeles basin and the offshore Pacific which was believed to be leftover mainly from the ongoing fires near the coast in south central California. Closer to these fires near the coast of south central California, more moderately dense to thick smoke developed during the afternoon and fanned out to the east and south. DUST: Caribbean/Puerto Rico: A sizable area of what is believed to be Saharan dust was visible spreading westward over the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and Hispaniola. Southern California/Baja/Northwestern Mexico: A patch of thin to moderately dense blowing dust originated after 20Z from sources to the south of the Salton Sea in far southern California and moved eastward over far southeastern California and close to the border with southwestern Arizona. Another streak of thin to moderately dense blowing dust also began after 20Z from a source in far northwestern Mexico (well south of the Arizona border) and moved eastward as well. 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