DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 1, 2007
Florida: A fire in southwestern Okaloosa County in the Florida panhandle was emitting a moderately dense smoke plume which moved generally in a southeastward direction during the day and out over the Gulf of Mexico. The fire has been burning since at least yesterday. Michigan: A long narrow moderately dense to perhaps very locally dense smoke plume moved to the south and out over Lake Michigan from a fire in Schoolcraft County of the Upper Peninsula. New Mexico: Moderately dense to dense smoke was visible at times through patchy cloudiness spreading to the south and southwest from a fire in south central Catron County of west central New Mexico. Some thin smoke had moved into southeastern Arizona just prior to sunset. California: A fire developed late in the day just northeast of Santa Barbara in southern California. Smoke was visible moving to the southeast in the hour just before sunset. Utah/Wyoming/Central US: Large fires in Sanpete County of central Utah as well as northeastern Duchesne County of northeastern Utah were producing very large dense areas of smoke which moved mainly in a east-northeast direction but also fanned out. The Duchesne County fire was the bigger smoke producer of the two and was responsible for a tremendous quantity of smoke which moved into northwestern Colorado and southwestern Wyoming. More fires burning close to the Lincoln-Sublette County border in west central Wyoming and also in central Park County of northwestern Wyoming were also producing moderately dense to locally dense areas of smoke which moved to the east and also fanned out to the north and south. Smoke traveled long distances from both the Utah and Wyoming fires and was visible with the favorable sun angle early and late in the day across the northern and central Plains and extending to the south down into eastern New Mexico and western Texas. Some of the smoke in the northern portion of this area was likely also from the large northwestern Canadian fires. Some of the detached smoke over western South Dakota, western Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and eastern New Mexico appeared to be at least moderately dense if not dense. However, it was not known what level in the atmosphere the smoke was located. South central Canada/Great Lakes Region: A thin ribbon of smoke was observed late in the afternoon and early evening moving southward across southern Hudson Bay and south central Canada and across Lake Superior. The smoke then turned more to the southeast and east as it moved over northern lower Michigan and over to Lake Ontario. The smoke was believed to be from some of the larger fires burning in northwestern Canada: Alaska/Northwestern Canada: Cloudiness over Alaska made smoke detection difficult. However, some smoke was visible at times through the breaks in the clouds over eastern Alaska especially from the fire burning around 40 miles to the southeast of Fairbanks. Across Canada a number of large fires were burning over the Northwest Territories southeast of Great Bear Lake as well as south and east of Great Slave Lake. Several more large fires were burning in the northern portion of Saskatchewan Province. The smoke from these Canadian fires during the late afternoon and evening was moving in a north-northwest direction. JS