DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z September 1, 2009
South Central to Southwest Canada/North and Central Plains/Northwest: An expansive area of smoke was seen covering a very large portion of southern Canada, the Northern and Central Plains, parts of the Midwest, and much of the Pacific Northwest. This smoke was emanating mostly from multiple large wildfires burning in southern British Columbia and southwest Alberta. 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/Wisconsin before wrapping back into southwest Ontario. Other areas of denser smoke were seen over the Midwest reaching as far as southern Indiana and from east Montana to the Nebraska/Iowa border. Southwest/Central and Northern Rockies to Northwest/Southern Plains: Thin remnant smoke was seen positioned from southern California across the Southwest to the High Plains region of eastern Colorado/Wyoming. From here, thin to moderate density smoke extended northwestward to northwest Montana/northern Idaho as the smoke wraps around an upper low, mixing with other remnant smoke over the Pacific Northwest. Thin smoke also extended southeast from the High Plains across the panhandles of Oklahoma/Texas into New Mexico. Most of this remnant smoke is believed to be from several large fires burning in southern California including the Station Fire in Los Angeles County with some additional smoke contributed by yesterday's fires in Utah. Both of these regions had active fires again today, some of which were again producing very dense smoke that was heading northeastward. The Station Fire is particularly impressive with the extremely dense new smoke seen this evening stretching over 300 miles from its origin to the Nevada/Utah border during the last visible image of the day at 0200z. Southwest Wyoming: As a result of the very strong wind flow around the upper low that is currently centered over southwest Montana, a moderately sized and very concentrated sand or dust plume has formed over southwest Wyoming. This plume was seen to the southwest of Lander, WY. -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