DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1545Z July 22, 2007
Idaho: Multiple fires across the Salmon River Valley in central Idaho have completely socked in most of the valleys with very dense smoke in the Salmon River and Clearwater, and western Sawtooth Mtns along with Hells Canyon along the OR boarer. Late night smoke has drifted over the Bitteroots into MT...described in more detail below. Northern Great Plains/Northern US Rockies: Last night's dense/moderate smoke from fires in Idaho is moving across the northern MT Rockies where it melding into a larger area of thin to moderately dense smoke under the amplified upper level ridge. This ridge/smoke boundary covers all of MT, ND, and a domed semicircle across S Saskatchewan with the apex at 52N105W. Clouds from thunderstorms over MN block detection of smoke over MN, IA, and NW WI...where there is likely thin smoke as well. Wyoming: Fires across the Mtns of W WY, N UT and ext SE ID are directly under the center of the upper level high, so smoke is barely moving, so it is also dense, especially between the Big Horns to Wind River then across the northern Green River Valley then south down the Tetons and Commissary Ridge to the Uinta's around the UT/WY border. Thin to moderate smoke can be seen across all of WY into S MT where it mixes with smoke described above. Ontario/James Bay: Moderate to dense smoke can be seen over all of James Bay and along the NE Ontario coastline with the Bay. This smoke is from NW Territories fires from a few days ago and is trapped in the northerly flow of a jet on the eastern side of the large scale upperlevel ridge. In fact, the smoke area is becoming deformed as some of the flow around the exit region of the jet is being sheared Swward across eastern ON to N Lake Superior near Michipicoten I. N Manitoba/S Saskatchewan: A swath of moderate smoke along and ahead moderate to strong westerly flow across the NW Territories and Nunavut extends across N SK, N MB, and the Nunavut/Hudson Bay coastline. The swath is about 175 km wide along a line from 57.2N107W to 56.5N97W (where it mixes with new dense smoke in the low levels from ongoing fires) bending NE to the coastline at Button Bay to Chesterfield Inlet. Alaska/Yukon Territory: Smoke is trapped in a deformation zone south of the Brooks range where it intersects with a southerly jet in a âTâ around 155W...so the flow out of the jet is shearing the smoke east and west, though most of it is moving east into E AK along the upper Yukon River then over into the Ogilvie Mtns of the Yukon territory. This smoke is mainly from smaller fires along the Yukon but also smoke from the Big Creek fire. Gallina