DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0235Z July 16, 2006.

Minnesota:
The wildfires in Lake and Cook counties of northeast Minnesota continue to
burn today producing a dense to very dense plume of smoke that stretches
east covering almost all of Lake Superior.

Washington/Idaho/Montana/Wyoming:
A fire in Spokane county of eastern Washington State is producing a
moderately dense plume of smoke that is moving northeast into northern
Idaho.  A wildfire that borders the counties of Valley and Lemhi
continues to burn today producing a dense smoke plume that is heading
in a northeast direction and crossing into western Montana.  A fire
on the border of Idaho and British Columbia is producing a moderately
dense plume of smoke that is moving northeast into southern Alberta.
The enormous wildfires in central Montana and northern Wyoming continued
to produce massive amounts of very dense smoke throughout the entire day.
This giant area of smoke is moving east and covering eastern Montana,
the Dakota's, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, northern Nebraska,
northeast Missouri, and western Indiana.  The smoke that reaches as far
east as Illinois/Indiana becomes very thin, but is still clearly visible.
The densest portions of smoke are found in Montana, the Dakota's and
Minnesota.


California/Nevada/Utah:
The large wildfire in San Bernardino county of southern California
continues to produce a massive amount of very dense smoke that is mainly
moving in a northern direction into Nevada, but visible imagery shows that
some of the smoke has fanned out to the southwest.  In Tulare county of
southcentral California the wildfire continues to produce dense to very
dense smoke that extends across Nevada and into southeast Idaho and
western Wyoming.  A fire in Santa Clara county of central California
is producing a moderately dense plume of smoke that has fanned out in
all directions throughout the day.  Several fires in central Nevada are
producing moderately dense to dense plumes of smoke that are all moving
to the northeast.

Canada:
Several wildires on the western border of Ontario are producing moderately
dense to dense plumes of smoke that are moving due east and extending
into central Ontario.

Banks

Unless otherwise indicated:

Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.

Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.

A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.

Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.