DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 2, 2017
SMOKE: Area from southwestern Canada to eastern Canada/Area from off the California coast to the Northern and Central US... Once again, significant wildfire activity especially over southern British Columbia, western Montana, central Idaho, northern and northeastern Washington, west central and southwestern Oregon, and northern California was responsible for a very large region of thin to moderate density smoke which covered much of the Northwestern, North Central, and Central US as well as much of southern Canada from British Columbia to a portion of Quebec. Thick smoke from the British Columbia fires was visible over the southern part of British Columbia with some of it now shifting southward into Washington and northern Idaho. Dense smoke was also seen moving east from the fires in western Montana and central Idaho and from southeastern Alberta and northern Montana eastward to the Montana-North Dakota border and southeastward from there over a portion of the Dakotas. A bit more localized dense smoke was noted closer to some of the wildfires in northern California, and Oregon, along with a newer one in northeastern Nevada. Alaska/Northwestern Canada... Wildfires scattered across the region stretching from northeastern Alaska across the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada were responsible for a large mass of thin to moderately dense smoke which covered these regions and extended farther to the east into Nunavut and southeast into northeastern Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan. Dense smoke was noted with some of the fire activity over the Yukon and Northwest Territories with the most concentrated area of very dense smoke seen moving to the south from the cluster of wildfires in the southern part of the Northwest Territories and into the northeastern part of Alberta and the northwest portion of Saskatchewan. Cloudiness has spread across much of Alaska which limited more recent information on the smoke extent and density there. Maine/Nova Scotia... A swath of thin density leftover smoke possibly attributed to a combination of wildfire activity over Canada as well as the Western US was seen stretching from Maine eastward over Nova Scotia to off the Canadian Maritimes. DUST: Hispaniola/Puerto Rico/Central Caribbean... The leading portion of a Saharan Dust layer continued to be visible through the day spreading slowly to the west over Hispaniola and Puerto Rico and stretching southward to near the northern part of South America. The dust also extended farther to the east and out over the open Atlantic Ocean. 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