DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z September 16, 2007
Southern and Southaastern US: A large region of haze was detected in visible imagery stretching from Texas and Oklahoma eastward across the Gulf Coast States then northeastward along the Southeast and off the Middle Atlantic coast. In addition to other pollutants, this area of haze may still contain some residual very thin smoke from all of the ongoing western US wildfires. Southeastern Missouri/Western Tennessee/Northwestern Arkansas: A cluster of agricultural fires in southeastern Missouri produced a number of small smoke plumes during the day. Cloudiness moving across the region at times prevented smoke detection. However, just before sunset the clouds cleared revealing a patch of thin smoke which was spreading mainly to the south and southwest across southeastern Missouri into extreme western Tennessee and northwestern Arkansas. South Central Canada/Northern US: Numerous fires were again scattered primarily across southeastern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba provinces in south central Canada but cloudiness prevented much in the way of smoke detection from satellite imagery. Washington/Oregon to the north central US: Once again, a very large area of smoke was visible in satellite imagery from off the Washington/Oregon coast extending eastward across Idaho, Montana, and northern Wyoming to the north central Plains. Within this large region, moderately dense smoke covered the eastern half of Washington and northeastern Oregon along with much of Idaho and Montana. Dense smoke was located primarily in central and northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and western Montana. The sources for all of this smoke were primarily the fires in central Idaho, western Montana, and north central Washington. Residual smoke from the large pyro convective smoke flare up with a fire in north central Nevada yesterday may also be contributing to this large mass of smoke although the northern Nevada fire was not nearly as active today. Utah/Nevada/California: As was the case yesterday, the fire in Tooele County in northwestern Utah was emitting a moderately dense to dense smoke plume which moved northeastward and across the Great Salt Lake toward at least a portion of the Salt Lake City and Ogden region. Also, a moderately dense to dense smoke plume from a fire in southern White Pine County in east central Nevada was also moving along the same trajectory as the Tooele County Utah fire and has in effect merged with the Tooele County smoke plume. The wildfire in southwestern San Bernardino County in southern California grew significantly overnight and during the day resulting in a tremendous smoke plume which stretched from the fire northeastward into north central Utah by sunset. The moderately dense to dense smoke plume affected the Las Vegas Nevada area during much of the day. Farther to the south, another smoke plume developed during the afternoon from a fire in eastern San Diego County of far southern California. The much smaller but still significant moderately dense to locally dense plume spread quickly to the northeast nearly reaching the California-Arizona border by sunset. Finally, similar to yesterday, several fires to the northwest of Yuba City in north central California produced several relatively small smoke plumes which moved to the north and fanned out during the afternoon and early evening. Arizona: Several fires were detected especially in central Arizona, but cloudiness prevented smoke from being seen in satellite imagery. Western Canada: A couple of dense smoke plumes developed late in the afternoon over the southeastern portion of British Columbia Province in southwestern Canada. The plumes were moving to the east into western Alberta Province. Alaska: Hot spots still at times could be seen in satellite imagery with the ongoing fires in far north central Alaska, but no smoke was visible during the day due to the presence of widespread cloudiness. JS