DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0015Z OCTOBER 13, 2008
Arizona: A fire on just west of US-180 near the Grand Canyon Airport is producing a plume of thin to moderate smoke that is traveling east along the southern rim of the Grand Canyon out to the Little Colorado River in a 20km wide plume. Central California Coast: A 5-10km wide plume of very thin smoke can be seen moving due west from the Chalk fire in central Monterey county, but then turns due south due to stronger northerly winds that are not blocked by Point Sur and can be seen for nearly 300km offshore past Point Conception where it fades into background haziness. Southern California: The Little Tujunga Canyon fire in the SW San Gaberiel Mtns overnight was very intense and produced moderately dense smoke that has continued to track south across the Pacific Ocean about 160km off shore of Punta San Jose. The pocket of moderate smoke is making a crescent shape and is about 50km wide. A line of trailing thin smoke can be seen moving through the eastern Catalina islands and the channel approaching San Diego. This line can be traced back to the source across Long Beach and Los Angeles. Idaho: Quite a few fires in the stovepipe of ID tonight particularly over W Shoshone and NW Clearwater counties (with some smaller ones in Benwah and Latah). These fires are producing moderately dense smoke that is moving in nearly all directions with low level smoke moving SW into E Benewah county and higher level smoke moving anywhere from due S to SE or due East. This has covered nearly all of Shoshone and the western half of Clearwater counties. Some smoke is beginning to move into MT near NW Mineral county as well as into Lewis and far N Idaho counties. A narrow strip of smoke, most likely from last night's fires in ID, can be seen extending from NE Idaho county, NE into MT to E Glacier county and across S Alberta to the Saskatchewan province line. This strip is no more than 50km wide from NW to SE. Gallina