DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 17, 2021
SMOKE:
Much of the Lower 48/Southeastern Canada/Northern Mexico/Extreme western
Atlantic/Northern Gulf of Mexico/Eastern Pacific to the west of California
and Mexico…
An enormous area of thin density smoke covered much of the lower 48 in
the U.S. with the exception of the Northwestern U.S. and portions of the
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. The smoke also was present over eastern
and southern Ontario, western and southern Quebec, the Canadian Maritimes,
the far western Atlantic especially off the Southeast U.S. coast, the
northern Gulf of Mexico, northern and western Mexico, and a sizable
portion of the eastern Pacific west of California and Mexico. This smoke
was due to wildfires burning especially in Montana, Utah, Arizona, and
New Mexico, along with a cluster in western Mexico. Within this huge
area of smoke were embedded areas of moderately dense smoke. One of these
stretched from the Southwestern U.S. to the northeast across the central
and southern Rocky Mountain region to a portion of the Northern and
Central Plains, the Upper Mississippi Valley, and the far western Great
Lakes region. The second moderately dense smoke area extended from the
wildfires in western Mexico to the west over the Gulf of California and
the southern half of Baja. Thicker patches of smoke were seen closer to
some of the wildfires in western Mexico, the Pinnacle Fire in southeastern
Arizona, the Johnson Fire in southwestern New Mexico, and the Robertson
Draw fire in far southern Montana. A relatively thicker swath of smoke
was also visible over southern Minnesota this morning which was likely
from a burst of smoke yesterday from the Robertson Draw and Crooked
Creek fires in southern Montana.
Alaska/Northwestern Canada…
Several wildfires in central and east central Alaska and the central part
of the Yukon in northwestern Canada were responsible for an area of thin
to moderate density smoke which was seen this morning over roughly the
northeastern quarter of Alaska and the northern half of the Yukon.
DUST:
Caribbean region/Bahamas/Southern Florida…
A very expansive area of Saharan dust covered much of the Caribbean region
including Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and possibly
southern Florida, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the Yucatan Peninsula
though cloudiness in these regions prevented dust detection in satellite
imagery. The dust also extended well east of the islands all the way
across the tropical and subtropical Atlantic to the west coast of Africa.
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