Thursday August 3, 2006

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 4, 2006.


Washington/Montana/southwest and central Canada/Idaho:
Several fires in the Okanogan National Forest northeast of Twisp, WA
and in the Bitterroot National Forest in northwest Rivalli county in
Montana continue to burn and produce dense plumes of smoke within about
150 km of the fires. The smoke combining today's and yesterday's residue
is mainly thin beyond 150 km and extends across northern portions of
Washington, Idaho and Montana and southern British Columbia, Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba, just south of Lake Winnipeg. Additionally,
a broad area of what is believed to be a mixture of haze and smoke is
seen coming in from the Pacific and crossing Vancouver Island, almost
all of Washington and southern British Columbia. While the source is not
certain it is believed to be emanating from the massive fires in central
Russia. A fire in Valley county of Idaho is producing a moderately dense
plume of smoke that is moving northeast reaching northwestern Lemhi
county. A mostly thin plume of smoke covers the northwestern portion of
Idaho county and southern Clearwater county of Idaho.

California/Oregon:
A big wildfire in central Crook county, Oregon is producing a dense
plume of smoke, whose lower portion is moving south and higher portion is
moving north. It forms a south-north belt, which crosses Crook, Wheeler,
Morrow, and Umatilla counties. Numerous fires in northwest California
in Siskiyou, Mendocino and Glenn counties continue to produce a large
area of smoke across the region. The smoke is most dense and locally
very dense in the valleys around the fires but moderately dense smoke
covers much of the surrounding area extending into southwest Oregon. A
swath of thinner smoke extends to the south off the coast to the west
of the San Francisco Bay area.

Minnesota/southern Manitoba:
Several fires along the border of Lake of the Woods and Roseau counties
in Minnesota are producing moderately dense and locally dense plumes of
smoke that are moving southeast. It covers most of Lake of the Woods
county and almost the whole Koochiching county of Minnesota. A fire
just south of Lake Winnipeg in Southern Manitoba province of Canada is
producing a thin and narrow area of smoke that is moving southeast.

Louisiana/southern Arkansas:
Several narrow plumes of mainly thin smoke were seen across this region
during the afternoon and early evening. The plumes were all moving to
the northeast and were mainly less than 50 km long.

Northwest Territory Canada:
Several fires around Great Bear Lake are producing moderately dense
smoke plumes that are mainly drifting to the north northwest toward the
Arctic Ocean.

Mid Atlantic coast:
A large area of aerosol is seen emerging from the mid Atlantic coast
from Delaware and Maryland south to South Carolina and extending out
into the Atlantic Ocean. It is felt that this area is a mix of haze and
some residual smoke, but that the predominant constituent is haze.
Zhong/Ruminski

 


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.