DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z July 21, 2017
SMOKE: Area from Southwestern Canada and the Pacific Northwest to Southeastern Canada and extreme Northern New England... Despite significant cloudiness near the persistent and intense burning complex of fires across southern British Columbia, an enormous area of thin density smoke was still visible which covers much of the southern tier of Canada and the northern tier of the US virtually from coast to coast. A portion of the smoke has also made its way around a cyclone off the British Columbia coast and back inland over the Pacific Northwest. Embedded moderately dense to thick smoke stretches from British Columbia to southern Manitoba and northern Montana and eastward from there over southern Ontario, northern Minnesota, and eventually southeastward over Lake Superior, the U.P. of Michigan, and northern Wisconsin. Fires over western Montana and northern Idaho as well as eastern Montana are also producing significant smoke which is contributing to the region of smoke from Idaho to eastern Montana. California/Inter-mountain West... The Detwiler Fire in east central California continues to produce a significant amount of smoke, with thin to moderately dense smoke extending to the northeast into southern Montana where it merges with smoke from other fires in Montana/Idaho as well as leftover smoke from the British Columbia fires. Thick smoke again appeared to extend to the northeast across the Lake Tahoe region and just south of Reno and farther to the east into west central Nevada. Alaska/Yukon/Northwest Territories/Nunavut/Central Canada/Eastern Canada ... Fires mainly across eastern Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories as well as a few over northern Alberta and near the Northwest Territories-northern Saskatchewan border were responsible for a large thin to moderate density smoke layer over eastern Alaska, much of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, northern portions of Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, Hudson Bay, and over Quebec. Imagery also indicated an additional feed of thin density smoke originating from the Canadian Arctic region north of the satellite field of view and spreading southward over Hudson Bay where it merges with the aforementioned smoke spreading southeast from Alaska/Northwestern Canada. Locally thick smoke was seen closer to some of the actual fires in northwestern Canada. Kansas/Oklahoma... A leftover area of thin density smoke from wildfire activity over the western US and southwestern Canada could still be seen this evening over portions of Kansas and Oklahoma though it was becoming more difficult to discern the smoke from other aerosols/pollutants given the fact the smoke has been cutoff from its source region for a couple of days. DUST: Caribbean Sea/Middle Atlantic Ocean.... The significant layer of Saharan dust that has been visible for the past few days has spread a bit farther to the west and is now covering the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and much of the Caribbean Sea. 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