DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0030Z August 09, 2009
North Atlantic: Smoke detected earlier this morning over NB, NS and ME into the Atlantic has progressed offshore except for a few isolated strips over the central coast of ME and the southern tip of NS. Otherwise the thin smoke is covering the Outer Banks region of the near North Atlantic. Canada (MT,WA): Copious amounts of moderately dense to very dense smoke continue to be seen covering nearly all of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and covering SE NW and S Nunavut Territories with a bit creeping into NW MT, and NE WA. A thin strip of thin to moderately dense smoke extends due east across N Ontario across the S Hudson Bay into northern Quebec behind the cold front. The smoke is particularly dense across a pocket of Central Alberta from yesterday's output of Central BC Rockies fires, and a large area covering N Saskatchewan and N Manitoba that is probably two to four days old as it converges into a larger ball underneath a small but well defined anticyclone. California/Oregon: Smoke from S BC fires over the past two to three days has sheared out to the south and now moving SSW along the coastal areas of CA from the CA/OR boarder well past San Fran. Bay. Thin smoke can also be seen through the central valleys and is getting new moderately dense smoke from 3 new fires in the N portions of the state. A tail of thin smoke drapes across central OR and may or may not be connected to the thin smoke across S BC but this cannot be determined due to patchy clouds and highly reflective surface of E WA. Alaska: Large areas of weather clouds cover AK to the Yukon Territory, but on the peripheries there are indications of continued thin smoke particularly over the Bering Sea to the Russian coast. It is not completely clear that this smoke has been pulled west from AK (though it is quite likely) or has contribution from large fires near Mongolia and central Siberia. Gallina 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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/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