DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 18, 2021
SMOKE:
Much of the Lower 48/Southeastern Canada/Northern Mexico/Extreme western
Atlantic/Northwestern Gulf of Mexico/Eastern Pacific to the west of
California and Mexico…
The enormous area of thin density smoke continued to be visible this
morning covering much of the lower 48 in the U.S. with the exception of
the area stretching from Washington, Oregon, and far northern California
eastward to the western Great Lakes region. Florida and a portion
of the Gulf Coast may also be smoke free though cloud cover in that
region prevented smoke detection in satellite imagery. The smoke also
was present over southern and eastern Quebec, the far western Atlantic
off the U.S. east coast, the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, northern and
western Mexico, and the eastern Pacific off the coast of California and
western Mexico. Within the thinner density smoke was a sizable batch
of moderately dense smoke over western and northern Mexico, the Gulf of
California, Baja, and virtually all of the Southwestern and South Central
U.S. from southern California and Nevada eastward to the Middle and Lower
Mississippi Valley. A rather narrow curved stripe of moderately dense to
perhaps thicker smoke was seen within this region from eastern Texas over
northern Louisiana, and the central parts of Mississippi and Alabama. This
stripe of smoke was likely being concentrated aloft by the presence
of a possible developing tropical system in the north central Gulf of
Mexico. Thicker smoke was also visible closer to some of the wildfires
in western Mexico and in Arizona and western New Mexico. The majority of
this vast coverage of smoke was due to wildfires burning especially in
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and southern Montana as well as western Mexico.
South Central Canada/Lake Superior…
Some thin density smoke was visible spreading to the east around a
thicker cloud deck over southern and eastern Ontario, western Quebec,
and a portion of Lake Superior. This smoke was from several wildfires
burning in western Ontario.
Alaska/Northwestern Canada…
Several wildfires in central and east central Alaska and the central
part of the Yukon in northwestern Canada were responsible for a west
to east elongated swath of mainly thin density smoke which was seen
extending from northeastern Alaska over the northern Yukon and much of
the Northwest Territories in northwestern Canada.
DUST:
Caribbean region/Bahamas/Southern Florida…
The western portion of rather thin Saharan dust was seen this morning
over Cuba, the western Caribbean, and a portion of the eastern Gulf of
Mexico. The dust may also be present a bit farther to the north over
the Bahamas and Florida though cloud cover there prevented detection in
satellite imagery. Farther to the east, more Saharan dust was located
over Puerto Rico and the islands to the east and southeast of there and
extended well to the east over the subtropical and tropical portions of
the 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