DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 31, 2006.

Very large area stretching from California/Nevada/Pacific Northwest to
the Great Lakes region, also including a large swath of southern Canada:
A number of very intense wildfires burning across the western and
central US were emitting very large smoke plumes which had combined to
form an extremely large area of smoke that covered a large region of
the northwestern and north central US and southern Canada. The fires
responsible for producing the densest smoke were located in northwestern
Nebraska, northwestern Wyoming, the western third of Montana, central
Idaho, north central Washington, north central Nevada, west central
Oregon, and northern California. Most of the smoke was moving in an
easterly or northeasterly direction.

Alaska/Northwestern Canada:
Some of the smoke from massive fires burning across eastern Russia has
been transported eastward across the Bering Sea and over Bristol Bay,
Kodiak Island, and into the Gulf of Alaska. Cloudiness over this region
though is making smoke detection difficult. Morning visible imagery
showed an area of possible smoke which was moving northwestward across the
Northwest Territories of Canada and grazing the north slope of Alaska as
it spread into the Beaufort Sea. The source region for this smoke could
not be definitely determined, but it is most likely detached smoke from
the cluster of fires burning around Great Slave Lake as well as from a
few around Great Bear Lake.

Eastern Gulf of Mexico/Florida/Western Atlantic Ocean:
A very large area of haze which consists of what is believed to be
primarily Saharan dust was observed across the eastern Gulf of Mexico,
Florida, and the Western Atlantic Ocean. This mass of Saharan dust has
been tracked for several days as it moved westward across the Atlantic
Ocean.

Southeast/Middle Atlantic/Ohio and Tennessee Valley/Northeast:
Patches of haze were detected across the eastern third of the
country which potentially could contain some smoke from the western
fires. Animation of visible satellite imagery indicates the smoke
definitely has made it as far as the Great Lakes region and could have
mixed in with some of the existing pollutants farther to the south
and east.

JS

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.