DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600 July 29, 2007

Northern Rockies/High Plains:
A pall of dense smoke from numerous fires over northern and central
Idaho and western Montana is seen covering all of Montana and much of
the northern two thirds of Idaho with the most dense portion now emerging
from the Rockies and moving across central Montana. Dense smoke has also
settled like a blanket over the valleys of Valley and Idaho counties in
Idaho. The most active fire this morning is near the junction of Flathead,
Pondera and Glacier counties. This large area of smoke has also spilled
over into southern Saskatchewan and extreme northwest Wyoming. A narrow
ribbon of moderately dense to dense smoke at a higher level extends from
central Montana eastward into west central North Dakota and then curves
to the southeast reaching northeast South Dakota.

Additional fires in southeast British Columbia are producing light to
moderate smoke that is drifting to the northeast into central Alberta.

California:
Locally dense smoke from the fire complex in western Siskiyou county
in northern California has mainly settled into the valley areas of
western Siskiyou.

The long running blaze in central Santa Barbara county is still active
this morning and producing a narrow plume of low level smoke that is
drifting to the south across the coast. It is difficult to detect any
smoke over the water with extensive clouds across the region but there is
likely an area of smoke over at least the eastern Channel Islands. Higher
level smoke from the fire is moving north across the central valley
and reaches to the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada east of the
Sacramento Valley.

Western Great Lakes:
Residual smoke from fires in northern Canada as well as numerous fires
in northwest Minnesota is seen over northern Minnesota, extreme northern
Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan ans western Lake Superior. The
smoke is mainly thin.

Northwest Canada:
A few fires were observed over the northern Yukon and western Northwest
Territory west of Great Bear Lake. They were producing moderate to
dense smoke that was drifting to the west but did not reach the Alaska
border. Extensive clouds were seen over Alaska.

Ruminski

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.