DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 15, 2017
SMOKE: Northern and Central Canada/Great Plains... A huge expanse of moderately dense to thick smoke blankets much of central and northern Canada from the central and northern part of Hudson Bay westward to the northern portion of the Yukon with some of the thicker smoke also extending southward into northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, and a good portion of Manitoba. The thicker smoke appeared to stretch into far northern Canada and north of the satellite field of view. Much of this smoke was attributed to numerous large ongoing wildfires occurring throughout the Northwest Territories, northeastern Saskatchewan, and western Manitoba. The smoke plume extends further south and east to include western Ontario, the arrowhead of Minnesota, and the Missouri River Valley. British Columbia/Southern Alberta... The wildfires that have been ongoing for the last month or so throughout southern British Columbia are producing thick smoke over the southern part of British Columbia. Moderate Density smoke is making its way into southern Alberta and northern Montana. In addition to the thicker smoke described above, a very large region of thinner density surrounding smoke extends into the Pacific Northwest. Western and Central US... Fires located throughout the far western states (mainly California, Oregon, and Montana) are contributing to a region of thin density smoke across portions of far northern California, Oregon, much of Washington, the northern part of Idaho, and virtually all of Montana. The smoke extends to the southeast from Montana into the northern half of Wyoming to the Central Plains. DUST: The Atlantic East of the Islands... An area of Saharan dust seen over the open Atlantic Ocean was approaching the the Leeward Islands and spreading eastward. -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