This series of daily NOAA/NESDIS Hazard Mapping System (HMS) Fire and Smoke Products shows the increase in areal coverage of fires in Alaska and the Yukon Territory from 13 June to 01 July 2004, along with the long range transport of much of this smoke southeastward across the Upper Midwest, the Great Lakes, and the Northeast US. The HMS product contains fire input data from the CIMSS WF_ABBA algorithm.

Early in the period, transport was influenced by a large polar vortex circulation over eastern Canada, which brought significant amounts of smoke soutward across western Canada and into the northcentral US. As the polar vortex persisted, this smoke was then transported eastward across the Great Lakes region and the Northeast US.

Changing flow patterns late in the period terminated the transport of smoke toward the Lower 48 states, and much of the smoke then began to drift westward from the fire source region, causing air quality problems in much of central interior Alasaka during late June and early July.