DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z June 24, 2019
SMOKE: Much of Canada/Northeastern United States/Atlantic off the Northeast U.S. Coast/Labrador Sea/Greenland.... The very large area of smoke was still visible late this afternoon and early this evening stretching from a portion of the Yukon and Northwest Territories eastward over Nunavut and Hudson Bay. From there the smoke spreads more to the east and southeast over portions of eastern and southeastern Ontario, Quebec, and a good portion of the Northeastern U.S. and the northern part of the Mid-Atlantic Region. The smoke also moved well offshore of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Region where it became involved in a low pressure circulation located to the east of Newfoundland. In fact, a swath of rather thick smoke appears to have wrapped completely around the low pressure and was visible across southern Greenland and the Labrador Sea spreading back inland to the southwest over eastern Quebec. Much farther to the west, a portion of the thinner density smoke appears to have spread to the south and southeast over central Alberta and central and southern Saskatchewan around a low pressure system located over western Manitoba. Significant cloudiness though over a sizable portion of central and western Canada limited smoke detection in satellite imagery. Much of the above mentioned smoke was primarily due to recent wildfire activity over western Ontario, central and eastern Manitoba, and northern Alberta. Southwest U.S./Central and Southern Plains... Wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico were responsible for a region of smoke which covered parts of Arizona and New Mexico with the thinner density smoke spreading to the east across western Texas to southern Oklahoma. Cloudiness farther to the north and east over the Plains limited additional information on the extent of the smoke. Plumes of thicker smoke were seen near and to the east of the Woodbury Fire in central Arizona and the Pine Lodge Fire in central New Mexico. Alaska...Wildfires were detected in satellite imagery scattered across portions of Alaska though cloudiness hindered both additional fire and smoke detection from satellite imagery. A patch of thicker smoke was seen relatively close to the wildfire burning in the Kenai Peninsula in far south central Alaska. Otherwise, smoke detection was limited. Mexico/Pacific Ocean off of Southern Mexico... Thin density smoke from continued fire activity over portions of Mexico was present across a good portion of north central, west central, and southwestern Mexico as well as off the coast of southern Mexico. Patches of moderately dense to locally thick smoke were located closer to some of the fires in Mexico. DUST: Caribbean Region/Gulf of Mexico/Southern and Eastern Texas/Southern Louisiana....A very large area of Saharan Dust stretched from just north and west of Puerto Rico westward across Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and much of the Caribbean and over the Yucatan Peninsula and virtually all of the Gulf of Mexico. The dust also appeared to spread far enough to the north and west reaching inland over southern and eastern Texas, southern Louisiana, and possibly as far east as the far western Florida Panhandle. 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