DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z September 4, 2017
SMOKE: Continental US/Southern Canada... An expansive area of varying density smoke is seen spanning most of the northern and central US and southern Canada from the Pacific Coast to the St. Lawrence River Valley. The smoke covers most of coastal California northward into southern British Columbia. From there, the smoke crosses Idaho, Montana and Wyoming into the northern and central Plains reaching as far south as Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. It continues east through the Great Lakes with a narrow swath extending northeast across the St. Lawrence River. Two minor features to point out regarding this plume are a feature that is oriented transverse to the flow that moves across western Pennsylvania and a remnant feature over northeastern Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and northern Louisiana. The thickest smoke covered a large area from far northeastern Washington across northern Idaho, Montana, northern Wyoming, South Dakota, southern Minnesota, much of Wisconsin and Iowa, and southern Nebraska. The parent wildfires for this smoke plume are those across the western CONUS and southern British Columbia Central Canada... A cluster of wildfires in northern Saskatchewan were producing a plume of light to moderate smoke that extended to the southeast across central and southern Manitoba into northwestern Minnesota. Remnant smoke from these fires was also observed across southeastern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan spreading southwestward. A smaller wildfire over northeast Alberta was generating an area of light smoke that extended only slightly to the southeast, remaining in northeast Alberta. Newfoundland/Atlantic Ocean... An area of light density remnant smoke was observed over the northern Atlantic and Newfoundland. The remnant smoke extends back along what appears to be a cold front that extends southwestward over the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Nunavut... An area of remnant smoke was seen draped across southern Nunavut and the Canadian Archipelago. The origin of this remnant smoke in uncertain, but could be associated with the layer of remnant smoke seen over Newfoundland. The large cyclone over Hudson Bay could be picking up some of the smoke and dragging it across the Davis Strait. However, cloud cover blankets the region between the two features, so any association between the two is just speculation. Pacific Ocean... Smoke from wildfires in northern Washington extends off the Pacific Northwest coast to about 135W and then stretches to the north into the Alaskan Panhandle and to the south around 25N. 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