DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z August 17, 2017
SMOKE: Much of Canada/Northern New England... The ongoing massive wildfire activity occurring over the northern parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and especially the southern portion of the Northwest Territories continues to be responsible for an extensive area of thick smoke which covers a sizable part of northern Canada with thicker smoke also extending southward over the western portion of Hudson Bay and northern Ontario. Swaths of moderately dense smoke extends even farther to the southeast grazing the US-Canadian border near the Great Lakes region and spreading over Northern New England. Thinner density smoke from these fires with some contribution from the British Columbia wildfires is affecting an even larger portion of Canada. Area from Southern British Columbia to Southern Manitoba... A large area of moderately dense to thick smoke attributed mainly to the wildfires over southern British Columbia was visible over the region from southern British Columbia eastward to southern Manitoba. Smoke density was not available this morning in satellite imagery closer to the actual British Columbia wildfires due to cloud cover. California and Southwest Oregon... Wildfires mainly in northern California and southwestern and central Oregon along with a few in the Sierras of central California resulted in a region of thin density smoke which was visible over southern Oregon and much of northern and central California. Patches of moderately dense to locally thick smoke were seen closer to the actual wildfires. DUST: Gulf of Mexico... The relatively small area of Saharan dust which was mentioned in yesterday evening's text product over the Bay of Campeche has lifted to the north over the west central Gulf of Mexico though it is barely discernible in satellite imagery. Caribbean/Hispaniola/Puerto Rico... The leading portion of a large area of Saharan dust could be seen spreading to the west over the Caribbean, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Windward and Leeward Islands, and farther to the east over the open Atlantic. -Westbrook 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