DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z July 20, 2017
SMOKE: Area extending from Southwestern Canada and the Pacific Northwest to Eastern Canada and the US Great Lakes Region then southward over the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions to the South Central US... The extensive complex of fires burning across southern British Columbia are still the major contributor to the tremendous extent of thin density smoke which covers much of the southern tier of Canada and the northern tier of the US. A portion of the smoke also spread southward from the Great Lakes region to the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions to the South Central US from Alabama and Mississippi westward to Oklahoma. Embedded moderately dense smoke stretches from British Columbia to western Ontario while also affecting northeastern Montana and North Dakota. Thick smoke blankets southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and southern Manitoba. In addition, a number of fires were also noted over central and western Montana, northwestern Wyoming, and central Idaho which were emitting moderately dense to thick smoke which quickly spread to the northeast and east adding to the smoke in these areas. Alaska/Yukon/Northwest Territories/Nunavut/Central Canada ... Fires mainly across eastern Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories were responsible for a large thin to moderate density smoke layer over eastern Alaska, much of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the northern portions of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. This smoke also appears to extend well to the north in the Canadian arctic region north of the geostationary satellite field of view. California/Oregon/Nevada/Idaho... The Detwiler Fire in east central California continues to emit significant smoke with thick smoke extending to the northeast over Lake Tahoe to as far as north central Nevada. Thinner density smoke stretched all the way to northwest Wyoming and southwest Montana where it merged with smoke from other fires. Thinner density smoke from this fire also appeared to be affecting portions of the central valley region of California with some of it possibly even up over northern California into Oregon. DUST: Caribbean Sea/Middle Atlantic Ocean.... The significant area of Saharan dust layer that has been visible for the past few days has spread a bit farther to the west and is now covering the eastern Bahamas, eastern Cuba, Jamaica, in addition to much of the Caribbean, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. A separate possible patch of thinner density Saharan dust was visible over the Bay of Campeche. 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