Wednesday, September 3, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z September 3, 2009

Much of US and Southern Canada:
Residual, mainly light, smoke, originating primarily from large fires
burning in central and southern California, Utah, northeastern Oregon,
and southern British Columbia covered much of British Columbia, Alberta
and Saskatchewan before forming a narrow band across southern Manitoba,
Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador.  The smoke was
moderately dense in portions of Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan.

Residual light smoke covered much of the US Plains and Great Lakes states
as well as the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Valleys in addition to much
of the Gulf of Mexico.  Within this region a narrow band of moderately
dense smoke covered portions of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri
and Arkansas.

Moderately dense smoke was also present in the vicinity of the Station
and Big Meadow fires as well as northwestern Arizona while a larger area
of light smoke covered the southern half of California and much of Nevada
and Utah.

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






 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.