DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z June 23, 2017
SMOKE: Southwestern and South Central US/Western Mexico... Similar to yesterday, a very large area of thin density attributed to wildfire activity primarily in Utah and Arizona with some contribution from fires in western and northwestern Mexico was visible across much of the Southwestern US extending eastward into a portion of the Central and Southern Plains. Farther to the south, the large area of thin density smoke from the fires in Mexico extended westward off the western coast of Mexico and over the nearby eastern Pacific, the Gulf of California, and Baja. Within the large mass of thin density smoke, much thicker smoke linked to the Brian Head Fire in southwestern Utah could be seen spreading eastward over southern Utah into southwestern Colorado. Farther to the east, a significant area of detached moderately dense to thick smoke from yesterday's flare up of the Brian Head Fire covered the region from eastern Colorado and eastern New Mexico eastward over Kansas, Oklahoma, and northwestern Texas. In addition, moderately dense to thick smoke was also being produced by wildfires in north central and southeastern Arizona. Eastern Alaska/Northwestern Canada... A large patch of thin to at least moderately dense smoke associated with fires burning primarily in the Yukon of northwestern Canada was observed stretching from central and east central Alaska eastward over the Yukon and into the western portion of the Northwest Territories. A bit farther to the east and southeast, a detached area of thin to moderately dense smoke also from the fire activity over the Yukon was seen spreading to the southeast over a portion of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and into northern Alberta. Other Aerosols: Gulf of Mexico... A band of aerosol attributed to burning from the oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche extended northward to the north central Gulf of Mexico just off the southern Louisiana coast. Southern Alberta/Montana... A stripe of aerosol of unknown origin and composition was visible moving east over southern Albertan and western to central Montana. DUST: Gulf of Mexico... A north-south elongated swath of possible Saharan Dust was visible early this evening stretching from the Yucatan Peninsula northward to at least as far north as the coastal portions of the central Gulf coast from southeastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. The dust may extend inland farther to the north but cloudiness is interfering with detection in satellite imagery. 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