DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2000Z August 31, 2009
South Central to Southwest Canada/North and Central Plains/Northwest: An expansive area of smoke was seen this morning covering a very large portion of southern Canada, the Northern and Central Plains, parts of the Midwest, and the western parts of Washington/Oregon. This smoke was emanating mostly from multiple large wildfires burning in southern British Columbia. Moderately dense to very dense smoke stretched from Alberta to Ottawa/western Hudson Bay with another large area stretching from southern Saskatchewan to North Dakota/Minnesota before wrapping back into southwest Ontario. Other areas of denser smoke were seen over the Midwest and from east Montana to western South Dakota. Southwest/Central and Northern Rockies: Thin remnant smoke was seen positioned from southern California across the southwestern US to the High Plains region of eastern Colorado/Wyoming. From here, thin to moderate density smoke extended northwestward to northwest Montana/northern Idaho. Most of this smoke is believed to be from several large fires burning in southern California including the Station Fire in Los Angeles County, though yesterdays fires in Utah may have contributed some smoke as well. -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