DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z October 14, 2016
SMOKE: Visible smoke was seen from fires widely scattered over the Southeast, North Central, and Southwest portions of the US. Significant cloudiness spread over much of the far western and northwestern US which greatly limited fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery which follows yesterday's widespread seasonal burning in those regions. OTHER AEROSOL: Southern Alaska/Gulf of Alaska: A swath of blowing glacial flour dust was visible emanating from the Copper River Valley in southeastern Alaska and spreading to the south and offshore over the Gulf of Alaska. The glacial flour then encountered westerly winds causing it to fan out more to the east. A bit farther to the southeast, an unknown aerosol was seen over a portion of the Alaska panhandle and just offshore. It is not certain, but this may be leftover thin density smoke from the large amount of seasonal burning which was occurring over portions of British Columbia yesterday. 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