DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z July 24, 2017
SMOKE: Alaska and British Columbia... Continued wildfires located in Alaska and British Columbia were detected this evening; however, smoke was not visible due to heavy cloud cover. Northwest Territories... Fires located in the southern portion of the territory are producing light to moderately dense smoke that travels predominantly eastward along the southern border before combining with a larger mass of light density smoke to the southeast. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario... Moderate smoke produced from the Lodgepole Complex located in east-central Montana is being carried north across the Canadian border. Remnant light density smoke blankets much of the central Canadian area this evening. Smoke stretches eastward and over Hudson Bay. The southeastern extent stretches across the US border and into the Upper Mississippi Valley before merging with remnant smoke covering the northeastern quadrant of the US. Idaho and Montana... Wildfires along the Idaho/Montana border continue to produce smoke of light to moderate density that was seen to travel towards the northeast. The larger fires located in Garfield County, Montana, now known as the Lodgepole Complex, are producing moderate smoke that extends northeast and across the Canadian border. Smoke from the fires including those located in southern Idaho blend together before combining with remnant smoke to the east. North-Central, Central, and Northeastern US... Remnant smoke likely originating from Alaska and Canadian wildfires are observed to move south and across the north-central US border before combining with smoke from wildfires located in the Northern Rockies and Northern plains. A large channel was observed to stretch southward across the Dakotas and into Nebraska. The smoke stretches as far south as southern Arkansas. East of the Mississippi the mass of smoke combines with an area of sulfate before extending out and over the Atlantic Ocean. The conglomerate is confined between the area of the South Carolina coast and northern Massachusetts. DUST: Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.... Saharan dust is visible over the Caribbean Sea and the entire southern portion of the Gulf of Mexico. Portions of Florida may also be affected. A vein of dust is also visible over the Atlantic extending eastward from the northern Bahamas to Bermuda. -Boll 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