DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 20, 2009
North Atlantic: Off the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US coastlines, light haze/aerosols were seen continuing to drift east and northeastward throughout the day. This haze extended northeastward just along the coast of Nova Scotia and across southern Newfoundland. Washington/Montana/Idaho/British Columbia: A fairly large area of moderately dense to dense smoke remained over much of northern/eastern Washington, north Idaho, extreme western parts of Montana, and southern British Columbia including most of Vancouver Island. By this evening, thin smoke had spread out across a larger part of western Montana, central Idaho, and southeast Washington. This smoke was caused mostly by a large wildfire burning in southern British Columbia, though other smaller fires around the Pacific Northwest may have contributed aerosols as well. As the large active fire mentioned above continued to burn today, another round of fresh dense smoke began to form over southwest British Columbia. California/Oregon/southwest Idaho: Thin smoke appeared in this evening's GOES-12 satellite imagery covering most of the state of California, large portion of Oregon, and part of southwest Idaho. Active fires in California/Oregon were adding additional aerosols but most of the smoke was leftover from yesterdays fires in the same areas. Some moderately dense smoke was present over the southern part of the Central Valley in California. New Mexico/Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas: Thin remnant smoke was seen in GOES-12 visible satellite imagery stretching across southern/eastern New Mexico, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and southwest/central Kansas. This smoke is believed to be leftover from yesterdays fires in Arizona and New Mexico; many of which were still actively burning today. 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.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