DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 23, 2017
SMOKE: Canada... Similar to yesterday, a large mass of moderately dense to thick smoke covered much of central and northern Canada from the northern parts of Manitoba and Ontario northward to the Canadian Arctic beyond the geostationary satellite field of view and eastward from there over much of eastern Canada. The smoke also then extended well offshore over Baffin Bay and the Atlantic south of Greenland. Thinner density smoke covered south central Canada as well as southwestern Canada from British Columbia across much of Alberta and the southwestern part of Saskatchewan. The smoke over southwestern Canada was due to the fires burning in southern British Columbia as well as from wildfire activity in the northwestern US. Northeastern US... Mainly thin density smoke attributed to a combination of wildfires in central and southwestern Canada and the northwestern US was visible over New England with moderately dense smoke noted over northern Maine earlier in the day. Area from California/Oregon/Washington to the Northern and Central US and the Great Lakes Region... A huge area of thin density smoke stretched from California and the Pacific Northwest eastward over Montana, Wyoming, eastern Colorado, and the Dakotas to the Northern and Central Plains and the Great Lakes region. This smoke was likely from a combination of the fires in central and southwestern Canada as well as the fires in the northwestern portion of the US. A stripe of moderately dense smoke from the central Canadian fires extended to the southeast across northern Minnesota. Lake Superior, and the UP of Michigan. More moderately dense to thick smoke blanketed western Montana, a good portion of Idaho and Washington, most of Oregon, northern California, and offshore of California. This region of thicker smoke was from numerous wildfires burning primarily over western Montana, central Idaho, western and northern Washington, central and southwestern Oregon, and northern and central California. DUST: Puerto Rico/Hispaniola/Cuba/Bahamas/Caribbean... A region of Saharan dust was visible extending west of the Windward/Leeward Islands over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba as well as the Bahamas and a portion of the 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