DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z July 4, 2017
SMOKE: Alaska/Northwestern and North Central Canada: Fires over the Yukon and Northwest Territories continue to emit smoke affecting mainly northeastern Alaska and the Yukon in northwestern Canada though cloudiness over the region is hindering smoke detection to some extent. Earlier, a streak of thin density smoke from these fires was seen extending to the east across far northern Canada then curving southeast over Hudson Bay. Pacific Northwest/Southern Canada: The smoke plume associated with the Sutherland Canyon fire in south-central Washington State spread well to the east with the thin density some covering eastern Washington, northern Idaho, northwestern and northern Montana as well as southern Canada from southern Alberta to southern Manitoba. Southwest and South Central US: A number of wildfires over Utah, Arizona, and Colorado was responsible for a huge region of thin density smoke over the Southwestern US and extending over a portion of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The smoke also affected northern and northwestern Mexico. Thicker density smoke was located closer to the actual fires. Baja/Southern California... Several active fires over northern Baja were emitting moderately dense to thick smoke over the region with thinner density smoke spreading over the border into far southern California and extreme southwestern Arizona. Central California/Northern Nevada... A large mass of thin density smoke attributed to the fire in Tulare County in south central California as well as a number of fires in west central Nevada was visible over a good portion of the valley region of central California extending across the Sierras to west central and north central Nevada. Much more dense smoke was located closer to the actual fires. Unknown Aerosol: Southwestern Canada... A large region of unknown aerosol stretched from southern British Columbia eastward to southern Saskatchewan where it mixed with leftover smoke from the fires in southern Washington. DUST: Gulf Coast... Saharan dust continued to be observed over the northern Gulf of Mexico and extending inland over a portion of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Florida Peninsula. 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