DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0315Z September 16, 2017
SMOKE: Western US... Wildfire activity concentrated in the region from north central Washington to southwestern Oregon and northwestern California was producing significant amounts of moderately dense to thick smoke which spread generally to the south but also fanned out across the region. A larger area of surrounding thinner density smoke could be seen across Washington, Oregon, northern and central California, much of Nevada and Utah, Idaho, and southwestern Wyoming. The smoke also extended well off the coast of Oregon and California. Smoke could not be seen this afternoon and evening in spots farther to the east over Montana and out over the North Central US due to widespread cloudiness. Only a few of the many wildfires burning for at least the past few weeks over Idaho and Montana could briefly be seen through the clouds. Central US/Great Lakes Region/Northeastern US/Southern Canada... Leftover thin density smoke primarily from the wildfire activity over the northwestern part of the US and portions of Central Canada was beginning to diminish but still covered sizable portions of the Central US along with northern Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. Thicker smoke of at least moderate density was still visible stretching from the Great Lakes region across the northern portions of New York and New England and from southeastern Ontario to off the Canadian Maritimes of southeastern Canada. South Central US... A combination of what are likely agricultural and seasonal fires over the Mid-Mississippi Valley region of southeastern Missouri and eastern Arkansas and across western Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas were producing a number of relatively small smoke plumes of mainly thin density which moved generally to the north-northwest. JS Earlier This Morning... 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. 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