DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1445Z September 15, 2017
SMOKE: Intermountain west/Central US/Great Lakes/Appalachians/Southern Canada/Northeastern Mexico/Gulf of Mexico/North Atlantic... A huge mass of thin density smoke, primarily associated with the ongoing wildfire activity over central Canada and the Intermountain West, was visible over much of North America from Idaho east all the way into the northern Atlantic Ocean, and south all the way into the western Bay of Campeche. Smoke across much of Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, and northern Minnesota is obscured by cloud cover. However, smoke was readily apparent over east-central and southern Idaho and western Ontario, which allows for the analysis of at least light density smoke across much of the region. Moderate density smoke was observed across the Great Lakes, southern Ontario, southern Quebec, the Canadian Maritimes, and into the north Atlantic Ocean. Embedded within the region of moderate density smoke are two regions of thick smoke: one over southern Ontario, the southern half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, and small portions of northeastern Indiana and southwestern Quebec and the other over Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island. Northern Atlantic... Remnant smoke across much of the Atlantic Ocean between 50W and 65W and between 20N and 40N has nearly fully detached from the area of smoke analyzed above. A portion of this remnant layer appears to be wrapping around the western side of Tropical Storm Jose, with the other portion just to the east of Jose. Much of this plume appears to be broadly curling counter-clockwise around Jose with the low-level circulation, with the rest drifting off towards the west. Pacific Northwest... Wildfires throughout the Cascades and northern sierras were producing a region of thin density smoke that was observed across central Washington much of Oregon, northern California, northwestern Nevada, and out over the coastal Pacific Ocean. The smoke plumes emanating from the wildfires supplying this area of smoke are of light to moderate density. DUST: Atlantic Ocean... Saharan dust was observed drifting to the west across the central Atlantic to the northeast of the Lesser Antilles. This region may extend north and west to the east of Tropical Storm Jose. If so, then the region of smoke across the north Atlantic Ocean may overlap the region of Saharan dust. 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