DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 29, 2009
California: Cloudiness continues to interfere significantly with smoke detection especially over central and northern California. Through a few breaks in the clouds, a moderately dense to dense smoke plume could be detected moving to the north from the large fire in northern Mariposa County of east central California. The extent of the plume though could not be determined in satellite imagery because of the clouds. Across west central and southern California, a large area of mainly thin smoke could be seen primarily along the coast and offshore during the late afternoon. This smoke was likely from the fires burning in Monterey County as well as the ones farther down the coast in southern California. Closer to the actual fires, limited information concerning the smoke could be determined in satellite imagery due to the cloudiness. Through a few breaks in the clouds, dense smoke was visible moving to the northwest from the large fire in central Los Angeles County. Even farther to the south, a number of large fires burning in northwestern Baja were emitting a mass of moderately dense to dense smoke which was moving in a northwesterly direction. Some of this smoke appeared to make it into San Diego County and especially right along and just offshore of extreme southwestern California. Northwestern US: More cloudiness moving inland over much of Washington and Oregon greatly limited smoke detection in satellite imagery. A patch of leftover detached thin to moderately dense smoke from the fire in northern Grant County of northeaster Oregon continued to be visible this afternoon in satellite imagery. This batch of smoke was moving to the east into western and central Montana. The leading edge of thin smoke from huge fires burning in southern British Columbia of southwestern Canada was also spreading southeastward into northern and central Montana. Southwestern Canada: A number of large fires continue to burn across southern British Columbia producing significant amounts of moderately dense to dense smoke initially moving to the northeast. A large mass of moderately dense to dense smoke from yesterday afternoon's flare up continued to be observed in satellite imagery this afternoon moving to the east over the northern two-thirds of Alberta Province. The thinner leading edge of the smoke was moving to the southeast into Montana. 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.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