DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600 July 16, 2007

Western and Central US/Southwestern Canada:
A large arc shaped region of smoke consisting of varying density from
active wildfires in the Western US was visible this morning in GOES
satellite imagery. The smoke extended from Oregon northward and eastward
across Washington, northern Idaho, Montana, and the southern portions
of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba provinces
of southwestern and south central Canada. The large mass of smoke
then spread southeastward and southward over the Dakotas, Nebraska,
the eastern portions of Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, as well as
Minnesota and Iowa to perhaps as far east as northern Illinois. Within
this area, patches of moderately dense to locally dense smoke were
observed. One of these patches was located over southwestern and south
central South Dakota, the western half of Nebraska, and northeastern
Colorado. Another was visible across a good portion of Montana as well
as the southern areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces.  The third
batch of moderately dense to locally dense smoke was closer to some of the
active larger fires and extended from Lake County of southern Oregon to
around Umatilla County of northeastern Oregon. A separate swath of mainly
thin smoke was detected moving northward from the fire in central Santa
Barbara County of southern California to central California, just east
of Sacramento. The smoke was moderately dense to locally dense closer
to the fire over Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County.

Central Canada/Minnesota/Northern Michigan:
Large fires burning in northern and central Manitoba Province of central
Canada were emitting moderately dense to dense smoke plumes which were
spreading in a southeastward direction. The leading edge of some of
this smoke appeared to reach into northern and northeastern Minnesota,
Lake Superior, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Northwestern and Central Canada:
Fires in northern Alberta and northern Saskatchewan Provinces along with
others in the southern and central portions of the Northwest Territories
were responsible for an area of smoke elongated from northwest to
southeast over this region. Cloudiness in the area prevented additional
details concerning the density of some of the smoke. One swath of
moderately dense to dense smoke could be seen extending from just east of
Great Slave Lake southeastward to the eastern portion of Lake Athabasca.

Alaska:
An inspection of morning GOES-West visible imagery does not show any
significant smoke over Alaska. Due to the very thin characteristics of
the smoke, no real additional details can be given concerning the smoke
which was analyzed yesterday over far northwestern Alaska and the Arctic
Ocean or the smoke plume which extended northeastward from a fire in
far northeastern Alaska close to the Canadian border.

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.