DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z July 18, 2017
SMOKE: Alaska/Canada/Northern Plains/Northeastern US... An expansive region of thin density smoke is observed covering an area from north central Alaska across Canada and off the Labrador and Newfoundland coasts and past the longitude of Greenland. The main source region for this smoke is the complex of fires burning in southern British Columbia. However, other contributions are made from fires over Alaska, the Yukon, south central South Dakota, and northwestern Ontario, the latter contributing to the north-south oriented moderate smoke layer extending from central Ontario to the Bootheel of Missouri. Also embedded within the larger area of thin density smoke is a region of moderate to heavy density smoke across much of southwestern and south central Canada with thicker smoke located over southern British Columbia. The source for the thicker smoke over southwestern and south central Canada is primarily the wildfires in southern British Columbia. California... A fire along the western slope of the central Sierras has been producing a smoke plume of varying density since yesterday. This smoke plume currently extends north east into Nevada with thick density smoke seen during the evening hours. Southern Nevada/Southwestern Montana... Fires in west central and north central Nevada are producing a thin density smoke plume that extends to the northeast over southern Idaho and southwestern Montana. DUST: Caribbean Sea.... A small area of Saharan dust is observed from just south of Hispaniola extending westward to just south of the Cayman Islands. South central Atlantic... A larger and much thicker layer of Saharan dust is also observed approaching the Leeward islands. -Westbrook 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