DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE
IMAGERY THROUGH 0230 UTC June 28, 2018.
NESDIS IS INVESTIGATING THE UTILITY OF THIS TEXT NARRATIVE. IF YOU FIND
THIS PRODUCT VALUABLE, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL RESPONSE TO THE FOLLOWING
ADDRESS INDICATING HOW YOU AND/OR YOUR AGENCY USE THE INFORMATION. THANK
YOU. SEND EMAIL RESPONSE TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov.
SMOKE:
Western and Central US...
An area of moderately dense to thick smoke emanating from the West Valley
Fire in southwestern Utah spread to the northeast across Wyoming, Montana,
and the Dakotas. A second wildfire downwind from the West Valley Fire
was also producing thick smoke this afternoon and evening adding to the
aforementioned smoke plume.
Moderately dense to thick smoke from the Spring Valley Fire in south
central Colorado extended to the east and northeast affecting the Front
Range, the Northern Great Plains and Northern Mississippi Valley. Again,
a second fire in southwestern Colorado was adding to this plume and the
plume from the Utah fires.
A much larger surrounding mass of thin density smoke attributed to
the above mentioned fires as well as other wildfires burning in the
Southwestern US and California had made its way as far north as the
U.S.-Canadian border, as far east as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,
and as far southeast as central Oklahoma and the St. Louis area. This
was moving clockwaise around a ridge over the central U.S.
ArkLaTex/southern Oklahoma...
Numerous fires across northern Texas and across the ArkLaTex region were
observed producing mainly thin smoke that was moving north. However,
two or three fires were producing thicker smoke. One in particular in
north-central Texas was producing thick smoke. Also over the ArkLaTex is
a layer of remnant smoke that is mostly thin with some slightly thicker
smoke embedded within. Much of this smoke was moving north.
Southern Canada...
Across much of the southern half of Canada, varying density smoke was
present. The region of smoke begins in west-central Alberta with a
wildfire that is producing moderate density smoke. This is the first of
many contributors to the area(s) of smoke extending the rest of the way
east across southern Canada.
A small amount of smoke is contributed by wildfires across Saskatchewan,
but the largest contributor of smoke in Canada are wildfires across
eastern Manitoba and western and central Ontario. Thick smoke was
emanating from nearly a half dozen wildfires in this area. The thickest
smoke extended from this vicinity across Ontario.
Further east, the smoke is lighter, but a wildfire in southern Quebec
was contributing thick smoke as well, allowing the stripe of smoke to
extend off the Newfoundland coast out to about Greenland.
DUST:
Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Eastern Pacific...
A very large area of Saharan dust was noted slowly spreading to the
west across the Atlantic and over the Caribbean including Puerto Rico,
Jamaica, south of Cuba, and south of Hispaniola, much of Central America,
southeastern Mexico, the southern and central Gulf of Mexico, and the
far eastern Pacific Ocean.
Southwestern US/Northwestern Mexico...
Across much of southern California, southern Arizona, northern Baja
California, and northwestern Sonora, blowing dust was observed this
evening. The major sources of dust were the Rio Concepcion River valley
in northwestern Sonora, areas south of the agricultural region in northern
Baja California, and the Anzo-Borrego Desert south and west of the Salton
Sea, with minor sources from other valleys in southern California. The
dust closest to the Gulf of California was moving north, while further
north and northeast, the dust was moving off toward the east.
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/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS: ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov