DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z July 25, 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 RESPONSES TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov.
SMOKE:
Overall Perspective...
An extremely large coverage of smoke of varying density was observed
in satellite imagery this morning across the eastern half of Alaska
and much of Canada to off the southwestern part of Greenland. The only
smoke free area may be a portion of Quebec and far southeastern Canada
though clouds were present there which limited smoke detection. The
thickest smoke of moderate to thick density was located over much
of western Canada with an eastward extension over northern Canada to
northern Manitoba and the southeast part of Nunavut and over Hudson
Bay. A narrow stripe of thicker smoke also stretched eastward across
southern Canada from southern Alberta to southern Manitoba to near the
border with North Dakota and Minnesota. The Alaska smoke and some of the
smoke over into a portion of the Yukon was likely due mostly to wildfire
activity in those regions. Farther to the east over much of Canada,
the smoke was believed to be mainly from long range transport from
fires over northern Europe/northern Asia though some of the leftover
smoke in Canada could be from wildfire activity actually occurring in
Canada. Across the US, smoke of mainly thin density covered the area
from Washington to central California and eastward from there possibly
all the way to the Appalachians. The smoke over the Western and Central
US was likely attributed to wildfire activity over the Western US. The
mass of thin to moderately dense smoke stretching from the Great Lakes
region to the Gulf Coast was more likely being transported southward
from Canada with the source potentially from wildfires in Canada and
even now possibly from the longer range transport from Europe/Asia.
More Specifically...
Western US...
Thicker smoke from the cluster of wildfires in southwestern Oregon and
northern California was noted over far northern California, southwestern
and south central Oregon. Thicker smoke from the Ferguson fire was
present over a portion of the central and southern Sierras. A swath of
thick smoke from wildfires in southwestern Idaho spread eastward to far
northwestern Utah and south central Idaho.
DUST:
One area of Saharan dust was observed across the Bay of Campeche and
southwestern Gulf of Mexico extending westward over Mexico and southern
Texas. A second batch of Saharan dust was noted spreading to the west
over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, eastern Cuba, the southeastern Bahamas,
and the eastern 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/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