Saturday, June 23, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z June 24, 2007

Alaska/Yukon/Northwest Territories/northern Alberta/northern Saskatchewan:
Some of the extremely large fires which had been burning just north of
Homer in or near the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge were still visible
at times through the clouds but smoke detection was not possible due
to the widespread cloudiness. There were still active fires burning
in far eastern Alaska and western Yukon Province of Canada which were
producing a large area of thin smoke with embedded patches of moderately
dense and dense smoke. The smoke from these fires was moving more in
a northeasterly direction late in the day. The biggest smoke producing
fire appeared to be in the Northwest Territories. Dense smoke from this
fire seemed to travel in an anticyclonic circular direction during the
day as a nearby high pressure system steered the smoke. Another big smoke
producing fire in northern Alberta Province was emitting moderately dense
to dense smoke which fanned out to the east and west as it moved to the
north and northwest during the day.

Western US:
Fires in southern Lassen and southern Plumas Counties of northeastern
California in or close to the Lassen and Plumas National Forests,
respectively were producing moderately dense to locally dense smoke plumes
which spread quickly to the northeast. Gusty westerly winds coming down
the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains spread across several
dry lake beds in northwestern and west central Nevada resulting in some
rather significant swaths of blowing dust, some of which extended more
than 150 miles to the east-northeast of their source. Also, a very large
region of haze was noted in visible imagery just prior to sunset which
extended from off the central California coast across the San Francisco
Bay region then northeastward across northern Nevada, western(including
Boise) and northwestern Idaho, western and north Central Montana and
into the Canadian Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It is not known
for certain, but it is very possible that this is leftover thin smoke
from some of the Alaskan wildfires which traveled around the western,
southern, and now eastern periphery of the persistent low pressure system
which has been present off the Pacific Northwest for quite some time.

Eastern Montana/Dakotas/Minnesota/Nebraska:
The area of thin to possibly moderately dense smoke described in the
writeup this morning moving east across eastern Montana into the Dakotas,
moved more in a southeasterly and even southerly direction during the
afternoon as it pushed across the Dakotas into western Minnesota and
even central Nebraska. The source of the smoke is most likely from the
Judith Basin County fire in central Montana which emitted a large burst
of smoke apparently rather high into the atmosphere last evening.

Northeast US/Nova Scotia/Quebec:
An area of thin to moderately dense smoke most likely leftover from
some of the numerous fires burning in Quebec Province moved to the
east-southeast and off the northeast US coast. The smoke is now passing
just south and southeast of Nova Scotia over the Atlantic Ocean. Only
a few fires were visible over central and west central Quebec Province
this afternoon and evening which were emitting thin to moderately dense
long narrow smoke plumes that were moving in a southeasterly direction.

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.