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