DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1815Z July 1, 2009
Southwest Canada: A band of SO2 stretches to the east-northeast from Vancouver Island across southern British Columbia, southern Alberta, and southern Saskatchewan. Another band of SO2 stretches to the east across central British Columbia and central Alberta before wrapping northeastward over northwest Saskatchewan. Both bands are roughly 50-100km wide. Northern Plains/Midwest/South Central Canada: A band of thin to moderately dense smoke likely mixed with SO2, is positioned from southeast Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba, south into eastern North and South Dakota, western Minnesota, western Iowa, Missouri, and southern Illinois. This allowed for a very hazy look to the visible satellite imagery from GOES-11 across the northern Plains and some of the Midwest as the haze was pinned along the back edge of an upper level trough. Central to Southern Plains: Thin to moderately dense smoke and haze covered much of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and north Texas this morning. Much of this smoke likely was caused by the numerous fires that were burning yesterday across Kansas and Oklahoma. Utah/Colorado/New Mexico: Wispy areas of thin to moderately dense smoke were observed moving southeastward across Colorado and New Mexico this morning, while smoke over Utah was moving eastward. It is believed that most of this smoke was produced by fires in Utah and Colorado yesterday. Alaska: Remnant thin to moderately dense smoke seen over eastern Alaska last evening had spread southwestward across the state by this morning. In addition, remnant SO2 from volcanic activity apparent over the Aleutians and the southwest corner of the state, as well as over northeast Alaska and the northern part of the Yukon Territory. Sheffler More information on the areas of smoke described above as well as others can be found at the locations listed below. THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov