DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z August 3, 2017
Currently: SMOKE: British Columbia/Pacific Northwest into central California and the Great Lakes... Wildfire activity throughout British Columbia is again contributing to a smoke plume of varying density that extends south across the San Joaquin Valley and coastal Pacific and extends eastward to Lake Ontario. Wildfires throughout the Intermountain West are also contributing to this smoke plume. The heaviest smoke is located throughout southern British Columbia, much of Washington State, north-central Oregon, and the Pacific Ocean just offshore of the Olympic Peninsula. Encompassing this region, as well as extending westward through, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado, is a large region of moderately dense smoke. In addition to this, individual smoke plumes throughout the western United States and pockets of remnant smoke over Utah and southern Wyoming appear to contain moderately thick smoke as well. Northwest Territory/Central Canada... Wildfires across the Northwest Territories are producing a mixed density smoke plume across northern and central Canada. The wildfires producing the most smoke are found throughout south-central Northwest Territory, just southeast of Great Slave Lake. These wildfires are producing moderately dense to very dense smoke over northern Saskatchewan and for northeastern Alberta. Other fires throughout northwestern and east-central Northwest Territory are producing moderately thick smoke plumes, which contribute to a thinner density smoke plume. The thinner density smoke plume extends into Nunavut, Saskatchewan, central Manitoba, and far western Ontario. DUST: Bahamas/Cuba/Florida/Bermuda... A Saharan dust layer is observed extending northeastward from northern Cuba, southern Florida, and the Bahamas up to a MCC over Bermuda. This feature is generally moving clockwise around high pressure centered over the central north Atnlatic. Eastern Caribbean... Another Saharan dust layer is seen over the far eastern Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands. This feature extends eastward into the central Atlantic and is moving westward. -Hosley 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