DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z July 04, 2010
Alaska: An area of mainly thin density smoke was observed this morning extending across northern Alaska, the far northern Yukon Province in northwestern Canada, and portions of the Arctic Ocean. This smoke was due in part from fires burning over northwestern Alaska and also from fires quite a distance away in northern Saskatchewan Province of west central Canada. Central Canada: Smoke primarily from fires over northern Saskatchewan Province in west Central Canada stretched across a good portion of central Canada. Details concerning the smoke density and overall coverage though could not be determined due to widespread cloudiness over some of this region. Central and Northern Plains States to southern Manitoba/Ontario/Quebec Provinces: A region of aerosol extended from the Central Plains northward to southern Manitoba, southern Manitoba, and southwestern Quebec Province. This aerosol may contain at least some remnant smoke mainly from large numbers of agricultural fires analyzed over Kansas and Oklahoma during the past several days. Southeast states: An thin area of aerosol trapped under an upper level ridge axis was centered over the Tennessee Valley this evening. There is some possibility that a little remnant smoke may still be present in this area from this past week's wildfires over southeastern and central Canada though there no longer is any evident direct connection in the atmospheric flow to the fires in Canada. This area was not analyzed as smoke in any of the graphical products listed below. Southwest: Light dust was moving northeast from the Mexican state of Sonora into Arizona and extreme southwest New Mexico. Dust from the Mongollon Plateau of Arizona extended northeast into southwest Colorado. 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