DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z August 17, 2009
California and the Southwest: Remnant smoke has mixed with new smoke from the active fires in California - the 'Yuba' fire along the Yuba/Nevada county border, the 'Shu Lightning' fire in Shasta county and the 'Lockheed' fire in Santa Cruz county. Thin smoke covers much of the central Valley with moderately dense to dense smoke in the vicinity of the fires. Moderately dense to dense smoke from the 'La Brea' fire in northern Santa Barbara county is seen drifting south over the Channel Islands and then shifting eastward toward the Los Angeles basin. The smoke thins out as it stretches across much of southern California and across central Arizona into northwest New Mexico. New England/New York/Ontario/Quebec: An area of mainly thin smoke was seen from Lake Huron and Lake Erie eastward across New York, northern Pennsylvania, New England, New Jersey, southeast Ontario and southwest Quebec. This is believed to be remnant smoke from the western fires and possibly from Alaska. There is also likely haze mixed in with the smoke. Bering Sea: The leading edge of a large area of smoke, some of which is dense, was seen moving into the western Bering Sea. The smoke is from large fires burning in Siberia. Ruminski 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