Tuesday, July 17, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 18, 2007

California/Nevada/Oregon/Idaho/Washington/Montana/Southwestern Canada:
Numerous wildfires across northern Nevada, southern and west central
Idaho, and central and eastern Oregon were emitting large quantities
of smoke which spread mainly to the north and northeast from the source
points. Cloudiness across the region prevented some details concerning
the density of the smoke but a few breaks in the clouds showed patches
of at least moderately dense smoke over the entire areas stretching
from central Nevada across eastern Oregon, the western half of Idaho,
eastern Washington, western Montana, and southwestern Canada. Closer
to the fires, dense smoke was observed moving to the north especially
from the fires in Washoe, Lander, Eureka, and Elko Counties of Nevada
and Owyhee County of southwestern Idaho. Farther to the south, a very
dense smoke plume was visible moving to the northeast from the ongoing
fire in central Santa Barbara County of southern California. Residual
smoke from this fire also moved far to the northeast across northeastern
California and western Nevada.

Central US:
An incredibly large expanse of mainly thin smoke from the numerous
fires in the western states was visible especially just after sunrise
and just prior to sunset with the favorable viewing angle extending from
Southwestern Canada and Montana eastward over the Dakotas and Minnesota
then stretching southward across the entire Central US all the way
down into Texas. A few patches of moderately dense smoke were embedded
within this large area primarily over the Central Plains. Additionally,
numerous smaller fires believed to be mainly of the agricultural variety
were detected across the western and central portions of Kansas and
Oklahoma. Some of these fires were producing thin smoke plumes which
moved off to the north. The concentrated area of fires across central
Kansas and central Oklahoma had produced enough small smoke plumes that
the smoke had consolidated into a somewhat larger patch of thin smoke.

Canada/Great Lakes Region:
Scattered intense fires across the central and southern portions of the
Northwest Territories, and over northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan,
and northern Manitoba Provinces were responsible for a large elongated
swath of smoke which extended from Great Bear Lake southeastward all the
way to southern Ontario and Quebec Provinces as well as Lake Superior and
the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The smoke moving to the southeast within
this large region was at least moderately dense. However, very dense
smoke continued to be emitted by a number of the fires in northwestern
and central Canada.

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.