DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z June 16, 2020
SMOKE: Southwestern/Central/Southeastern U.S./South Central Canada… The huge mass of thin density smoke attributed to a number of wildfires which have been burning for days now in the Southwestern U.S. covered much of the Central and Southeastern U.S. and northern Gulf of Mexico and extended up into south central Canada especially across Manitoba and the western part of Ontario. Additional fires scattered across portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, eastern Colorado, and the middle to lower Mississippi Valley region were contributing as well to the large mass of smoke. Closer to the actual wildfires in the Southwest, significant smoke plumes of moderate to thick density continued to spread to the northeast from the Mangum Fire in north central Arizona, the Bush Fire in south central Arizona, the Bighorn Fire in southeastern Arizona, the Bringham Fire in east central Arizona, and the East Canyon Fire in southwestern Colorado. Great Lakes Region/Ohio Valley Region… An aerosol which may be leftover thin density smoke was visible stretching from lower Michigan to the south and southwest over northwestern Ohio, Indiana, eastern Illinois, western Kentucky, and western Tennessee. This possible leftover smoke was tracked yesterday moving to the south from Canada and may be associated with long range transport from the fire activity in northwestern Canada and Alaska or possibly even Asia. Alaska/Northwestern Canada… Cloudiness began to increase over portions of Alaska which lessened the ability to detect smoke from wildfires in northwestern Canada and portions of Alaska. Earlier in the day, moderately dense to thick smoke could be seen spreading to the west from the wildfires burning in the north central Yukon in northwestern Canada with smoke extending into eastern and northeastern Alaska. Moderately dense smoke was also noted spreading to the north and gradually thinning in density from a couple of wildfire complexes in southwestern Alaska. Mexico… Seasonal fires in western and southern Mexico resulted in areas of mainly thin density smoke which impacted portions of those regions as well as the nearby Pacific to the southwest and south of Mexico. JS Earlier This Morning... BLOWING DUST: Tropical Atlantic Ocean… A new loading of Saharan Dust was moving off the African coast and into the central Tropical Atlantic, about as far east as 40W longitude. The leading edge of the dust plume was moving off toward the west. 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