Thursday, July 30, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 30, 2009

Alaska/Canada/Northern US:.
Numerous large wildfires continue to burn over portions of Alaska and
the Yukon of northwestern Canada. A very large mass of moderately dense
to very dense smoke was visible over northern and eastern Alaska as well
as northwestern Canada including much of the Yukon Province. Surrounding
the moderately dense to very dense smoke was an extremely large area
of thin smoke which covered northern and eastern Alaska, portions of
the Arctic and northwestern Canada. The thin smoke was then transported
southeastward across southwestern and south central Canada and into the
north central U.S.  The smoke may even extend farther to the east and
southeast, but cloudiness interfered with smoke detection over the Great
Lakes region, the Middle Mississippi Valley, and southeastern Canada.

British Columbia/Washington/Oregon:
Numerous wildfires also continue over the Pacific Northwest and southern
British Columbia.  A large area of thin smoke mainly associated with
these fires was seen over a good portion of southern British Columbia,
Washington, northeastern Oregon and northern Idaho. The smoke then likely
combined with smoke from the northwestern Canada and Alaska fires as
it spread eastward into Alberta Province of southwestern Canada and
Montana. Within this large mass of thin smoke was a batch of at least
moderate density smoke which covered north central Washington as well
as southern British Columbia Province.

Utah/Colorado:
A patch of thin smoke was observed moving eastward across Utah into
western Colorado this morning. This smoke was likely remnant smoke from
fires occurring in north central Utah as well as smoke transported
southeastward from larger fires in Washington, Oregon, and British
Columbia.

JS

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






 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.