DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z July 28, 2019
SMOKE:
Alaska/Canada/Central and Eastern U.S...
A large plume consisting of moderate density smoke is seen traveling
eastward over the Aleutian Islands heading towards southeast Alaska
and British Columbia. That plume is the result of long-range smoke
transport associated with wildfire activity in Russia. Cloud cover
across much of central Alaska and the northern Canadian territories
prevented smoke identification in those areas, with the exception of
the northern tip of the Northwest Territories where a large wildfire
could be seen releasing heavy density smoke which was spreading to the
west-northwest towards the Beaufort Sea. A large area of predominantly
light smoke covers central-southern Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba,
extending southward across the central and eastern-northeast U.S. That
large plume is linked to scattered fire activity across southern Canada
and central U.S. Smoke could be seen accumulating in the upper levels
of the atmosphere over Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and across the Great
Lakes, in addition to areas to the east including New England and Nova
Scotia. Overall, the smoke is dispersing towards the east following the
upper level atmospheric flow.
Oregon/Northern California/Washington/Northern Idaho/Northwestern
Montana...
The Milepost 97 Fire in southwestern Oregon was producing thick smoke in a
plume extending south- and eastward from the fire covering southern Oregon
and northern California. Light-to-moderate density smoke extended south
along the northern California's coastline and northeast over eastern
Oregon, western Idaho, and northwest Montana. The Left-hand fire in
central Washington was also seen releasing moderate-to-heavy density
smoke dispersing towards the east for approximately 200 miles.
DUST:
Puerto Rico/Caribbean Sea/Hispaniola/Cuba...
A large of area of Saharan dust was seen spreading westward across much
of the southern Caribean Sea, from the Lesser Antilles to the Yucatan
Peninsula, and from the South American coast to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola,
and Cuba.
WS
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