DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z June 21, 2010
Central Canada/Western Great Lakes: A large area of smoke covers nearly all of the prairie provinces of Canada from the large fires of N Saskatchewan, N Alberta and those SW of Great Slave Lake over the past few days. The smoke covers the southern half of Alberta, all of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and extends across the much of the western half of Ontario. The smoke also extends eastward across southern Hudson Bay and northern James Bay and into central Quebec. The smoke also dips south across Lake Superior and the upper peninsula of Michigan. Moderately dense to very dense smoke was seen near the numerous large fires over the northern Canadian prairie provinces and are depicted in the graphics at the link below. Eastern Canada/Canadian Maritimes: An area of thin smoke was exiting eastern Canada and the southern Maritimes at sunset. Thin smoke is moving in an arc from N to S just off the coast of Labrador toward the E under strong westerly flow. A pocket of moderately dense smoke is trapped in an anticyclone SE of Nova Scotia and due S of Newfoundland covering an area from 50-60W between 40-45N... clouds obscure the area between the two described plumes but occasional breaks give hints that the areas are connected. Southwest US: Several active fires were noted over Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, most of which have been burning for a number of days. Of particular note is the large fire near Flagstaff Arizona which exploded this afternoon. The smoke plume associated with this fire is very dense and quickly raced to the northeast, reaching central Colorado by sunset. Ruminski 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