Monday, June 21, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z June 21, 2010

Canada:
A large area of smoke stretches across most of Canada.  The smoke starts
in east central British Columbia where anything from light to dense smoke
moves eastward across central Alberta and into western Saskatchewan.
The smoke source are from fires burning across central/northern British
Columbia.  This smoke then combines with the Saskatchewan fires that are
also producing a large area of smoke.  Once again anything from light
to very dense smoke is moving east into central/southern portions of
Manitoba and a little farther south over Ontario and Quebec.  The smoke
stretching across Ontario and Quebec from these above mentioned wildfires
is light to moderately dense in nature.

Next, numerous wildfires burning in western Quebec are emitting light
to moderately dense smoke moving eastward.  Residual smoke from these
wildfires are moving northeastward into the Canadian Maratimes and is
getting caught up in a low off the coast.  Overall there is good westerly
flow taking all of the smoke from western to eastern Canada from various
fire sources.

Southwest US:
The wildfire near Flagstaff, Arizona continues to produce an area of
moderately dense to dense smoke moving northeastward into eastern Utah
and western Colorado. This area of smoke combines with residual smoke
from yesterday's burning and moves eastward across southern Wyoming
and northern Colorado.  Then the smoke combines with the smoke that
moved northward yesterday from the New Mexico wildfires and is moving
east northeastward across Nebraska and western Iowa.  The wildfires in
New Mexico are beginning to show signs of life in the early afternoon
GOES-13 imagery.

Louisiana:
A fire burning in central Cameron county Louisiana (southwest Louisiana)
is producing a large area of smoke moving westerly across the source
county, Calcasieu county, the Gulf of Mexico and slowly toward the
Texas line.  A large area of residual smoke from this same fire burning
yesterday continues to move north across eastern Texas and western
Louisiana.

J Kibler

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.