Friday August 4, 2006

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 5, 2006.


California/Oregon/Idaho/Washington/Montana/south of western and central
Canada:
The Tripod complex north and northeast of Twisp, Washington in the
Okanogan Range is still producing dense low level smoke that is moving
due east and covers nearly all of Okanogan county east of the Chewuch
River. Large fires across northwestern California, including Hunter,
Orleans, Bar, Kingsley, Panther, Mendocino and Uncle Complexes have
produced a veil of moderately dense to locally very dense smoke in the
mid to upper levels of the troposphere.  The smoke is being stretched out
by upper level winds into a line that has connected with the smoke from
Washington and extends from northwestern California and offshore waters
across central Oregon from the SW corner to the northwestern corner
and is about 141km wide. The complex smoke then continues to extend
to almost the whole Washington and across northern Idaho (covering Nez
Perce and Shoshone counties) into northwestern Montana, Saskatchewan to
the southern tip of Lake Manitoba.

Mid Atlantic coast:
A large area of aerosol is seen emerging from the US East Coast ahead
of the approaching cold front.  The area extends from Nantucket Island
southwestern to the southern tip of the Delmarva and across the coastal
flats of the Carolinas and Georgia.  The area seen is on average 350km
wide (from NW-SE) and at its widest is more than 500km wide.

Louisiana/northeastern Texas:
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 or north and were mainly less than 50 km long.

Northwest Territories of Canada:
A narrow strip of moderately dense to locally dense smoke more than
600km has extended from the north of central Saskatchewan province
to Eskimo Point, that is on the northwest of Hudson Bay and north of
Manitoba province.

NW NW Territories:
Smaller pockets of moderately dense smoke surround the Great Bear Lake
from fires around the lake, which is moving north to the Arctic Circle. A
thin plume of smoke seen in the evening GOSE WEST imagery is swirling
around northern British Columbia panhandle area.

Zhong

 


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.