DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z UTC August 25, 2007
Lower Mississippi Valley: Numerous fires were observed across western Mississippi, eastern Arkansas and northeast Louisiana, several of which produced mainly short bursts of thin smoke in narrow plumes. The plumes were generally less that 25 km long and mainly drifted to the northeast. Montana/Idaho: A large number of fires were seen over central Idaho and northwest Montana. The complex producing the most smoke was in Blaine county Idaho just north of Hailey. A thick plume of smoke was fanning out and mainly moving to the east. By sunset the smoke had covered all or portions of Custer, Butte, Bingham and Bonneville counties. The other fires in Idaho were over Valley, southern Idaho and western Lemhi counties. The smoke from these numerous blazes was moderate to thick and was moving to the east reaching into Beaverhead county Montana. Several fires were also seen in northwest Montana. The most active were near the Beaverhead/Ravalli county border, in central Granite and in Missoula counties. The smoke with these fires was mixed with clouds making detection difficult but it appeared that the smoke was light to moderate. Washington: A fire in northern Chelan had a moderately dense but fairly short smoke plume that extended east just reaching Okanogan county. Utah: A couple of fires in central Garfield county east of Bryce Canyon had light to locally moderately dense smoke that was moving to the east but still within Garfield county. California/Arizona: The massive blaze in Santa Barbara County continues to produce very thick smoke this evening that is moving north. The extent of the thickest smoke reaches into central Madera, eastern Fresno and eastern Tulare counties. Thin remnant smoke covers much of the rest of central California from from the San Francisco Bay area east to Lake Tahoe. and south to the fires and Inyo county. Additional moderate to thick smoke was moving north from large fires in northern Baja. This smoke was moving across western San Diego county. A couple of fires in the eastern portion of the Grand Canyon National Park were producing moderately dense smoke that was moving to the east into northern Navaho county. Another fire in south central Coconino county just north of Flagstaff had a moderately dense plume moving to the east. South Dakota: An area of thin smoke was seen from western into central South Dakota. This smoke is likely remnant smoke from the fires in Montana and Idaho. Alaska: A fire north of the Brooks Range about 160 km southwest of Deadhorse was producing a plume of moderate to locally dense smoke that was moving to the southwest and reaching the northern slopes of the Brooks Range just west of Anaktuvuk Pass. Hawaii: Lava flows from the volcano have spread across vegetated areas on the Big Island and initiated fires which were producing smoke which also mixed with the vog. The smoke was moving to the west along the south slopes of Mauna Loa and off the coast. Another possible area was seen emerging from the clouds off the north coast near Upulu Point and moving into the Alenuihaha Channel. Ruminski