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