DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z July 25, 2017
SMOKE: Area from Montana eastward to the Great Lakes region and southward to the Southern Plains/Lower Mississippi Valley/Southern Appalachians... An extensive area of primarily thin density smoke was seen encompassing much of the Northern and Central US from Montana eastward to the eastern Great Lakes region, southern Ontario, and southern Quebec. The smoke also covered the Central and South Central US including the Plains, the Mississippi Valley region, and the Ohio and Tennessee Valley regions. The source for much of this smoke is likely attributed mainly to wildfires in Idaho and Montana though some of the smoke from the fires in Canada may also be involved. Patches of thicker density smoke were visible moving east across North Dakota, northern Minnesota, and over the border into far southern Canada. More areas of thicker density smoke could be seen closer to the larger fires in the Western US. Much of Canada... A very large mass of thin density smoke was visible stretching from the eastern portion of the Yukon and the northeastern part of British Columbia eastward over Hudson Bay and portions of Quebec. Much of this smoke was due to wildfires burning over various parts of Canada including central and northern Ontario, northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and especially over the southern part of the Northwest Territories. Smoke smoke from the fires over the Western US (especially fires in Idaho and Montana) may have been transported over the south central portion of Canada. Thicker smoke was seen moving over the southern part of Hudson Bay, the southern portion of the Northwest Territories, and the northern parts of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Another area of fire activity along with locally dense smoke was noted over the south central part of British Columbia where some of the recent intense concentrated fire activity had been occurring over the past couple of weeks. DUST: Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.... The area of rather thin density Saharan dust continued to be visible this evening extending from portions of the central Gulf of Mexico northwest into portions of coastal Texas and Louisiana, as well as eastern Mexico. More Saharan dust was likely present over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and the eastern Caribbean. 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