Tuesday, July 31, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215 UTC August 1, 2007

Oregon/Montana/Idaho:
Large wildfires in northeast Oregon (Hells Canyon National Recreational
Park), in central Idaho and western Montana are producing a large area
of moderately dense to very dense smoke that is moving west across parts
of central Idaho and western/central Montana.  Light to moderately dense
residual smoke (with a few dense pockets) from these fires continues to
move west across parts of southern Canada, the northern/central Rockies,
the northern/central Plains, the Upper/Middle Mississippi Valley, the
Great Lakes region and the Ohio Valley.

British Columbia/Alberta:
Wildfires burning in southeast British Columbia are producing moderately
dense to dense plumes of smoke moving west into southern Alberta.

California:
A wildfire in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Santa Barbara county is
emitting an area of moderately dense to dense smoke south into the
Pacific Ocean.  Light to moderately dense smoke is also fanning north
NE across the county.  A narrow line of residual smoke from this fire
stretches from northern to southern California in the central section
of the state (San Joaquin Valley).

A fire in northern California in the Siskiyou mountains (Siskiyou county)
is producing an area of moderately dense to dense smoke that stretches
south into Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity counties. Residual light smoke
from this fire can be seen in extreme southwest Oregon and a small area
in the Pacific Ocean west of the wildfire.

Washington:
A fire in Chelan county (North Cascades National Park) is producing an
area of moderately dense smoke extending southeast along the Okanogan
county border.

Mid Atlantic/Tennessee and Ohio Valley/Upper and Lower Mississippi Valley:
A mix of light smoke and haze spreads across most of Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and parts of southern Indiana and
Illinois and southeast Missouri, northeast Arkansas and northern North
Carolina.  Source of smoke cannot be confirmed, but thinking is that
its from the wildfires in the western U.S.

Northwest Territories:
Cloud cover limits smoke detection but an area of moderate smoke or
smoke mixed with haze can be seen moving from southeast of Great Bear
Lake toward Great Slave Lake.  Presumably this smoke is a residual from
previous days fires in western Northwest Territories and east central
Alaska.

J Kibler





 


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.