DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z UTC August 22, 2007
Montana/Idaho: The numerous fires that have been occurring over Idaho and Montana for the past several weeks have diminished with only a few fires evident in satellite imagery today. However, the smoke that they produced is still affecting several portions of North America. The only smoke that can be seen attached to an active fire is over Blaine county Idaho north of Hailey. This fire complex is producing dense smoke close to the source and light to moderately dense smoke eastward reaching into northern Bingham and Jefferson counties. An area of remnant, mainly light smoke can be seen over east central Idaho covering northern Custer, northeast Valley, northern Lemhi and southeast Idaho counties and spilling over into adjoining Montana. Wyoming: A pair of blazes in the Bighorn mountains are producing narrow plumes of thin smoke that are extending east along the Wyoming/Montana border and reach into western South Dakota. California/Nevada/Arizona/New Mexico/Utah: New fires were seen today in Arizona and Utah. One of the fires along the Millard/Sanpete border in Utah is producing a blanket of thick smoke spreading to the east and reaching Uinta and Grand counties. Two smaller fire in central and southwest Garfield count Utah were producing only local areas of light smoke. A blaze on the north rim of the Grand Canyon in Grand Canyon National Park is producing moderate to thick smoke that is moving east into northern Navaho county. The Zaca fire in Santa Barbara county continues to produce a large area of moderate to dense smoke that covers much of eastern Santa Barbara, all of Ventura and western Los Angeles counties. The smoke also extends south over the ocean and can be seen as far south as off the coast of Baja. A fire in southeast Los Angeles county near Hacienda Heights had a moderately dense plume of smoke extending to the east into extreme southwest San Bernardino. Another fire in western Riverside county near Banning in the San Bernardino National Forest had a plume of light to moderate smoke that was drifting to the southeast into Imperial county. A couple of broad areas of mainly light smoke is remnant smoke from the past couple of days and was seen over parts of the area. One area covers much of southeast California and southern Nevada. Another area is mainly over much of New Mexico. Nebraska/South Dakota: An area of thin remnant smoke from the Montana/Idaho fires as seen over the northwest half of Nebraska and the southeast half of South Dakota. Further to the east clouds preclude seeing additional smoke. Southeast US: An area of old remnant smoke, that has likely mixed with haze, was seen over the Atlantic off the south Georgia/north Florida coast and extending back across northern Florida into the northeast Gulf of Mexico. Northern Canada: A large area of thick to moderately dense smoke covered most of Hudson Bay and was moving to the east-northeast. The thickest portion of the smoke was over the northern half of the Bay. Ruminski