DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z July 12, 2010
Gulf of Mexico: Areas of haze and pollutants can be seen over the northern Gulf. The sole visible tiny smoke plume seen from burning near the Deepwater Horizon spill site seems to make no significant contribution to this area. U.S. Pacific Northwest: Fires in central Washington state are producing a light to moderate (occasionally dense) area of smoke in north central Washington and extending slightly into British Columbia. Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Ontario/Quebec and Minnesota: Numerous Saskatchewan wildfires continue to produce an area of light, moderate and some dense smoke that extends toward the southeast into northern Minnesota and then northeast into north central Ontario. The densest smoke is near the fires and in southern Manitoba. Light remnant smoke originally from the Saskatchewan fires also can be seen in southwestern and central Quebec. Alaska/Northwestern Canada: Clouds make any large scale smoke difficult to discern although a few individual light to moderate smoke plumes attached to fires can be seen. 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