Monday, July 12, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z July 13, 2010

Pacific Northwest/Intermountain West:
Numerous fires burning across central/eastern Washington and northern
Oregon are producing a large area of moderately dense to dense smoke
moving east into northern Idaho and western Montana.  Light smoke spreads
a little farther east into Montana.

Northern Plains/Upper Mississippi Valley/South Central Canada:
An area of very light smoke can be seen across parts of northeast South
Dakota, western Minnesota, western/central North Dakota and moving north
into southern Manitoba.  The original source of this smoke cannot be
confirmed, but we are thinking from the wildfires burning in Saskatchewan
during the last week

An individual fire not associated with this light smoke is producing
moderately dense to dense smoke moving north into southeast Manitoba.

Oregon/Nevada/Northern and Central California/Idaho:
Areas of dust can be seen blowing east across the above mentioned states.
The largest source of the blowing dust is located in northern California,
Southern Oregon and western/central Nevada.

Southern California:
A wildfire burning in northern Santa Barbara County is emitting moderately
dense to dense smoke north NW across San Luis Obispo and Kern counties
with lighter smoke moving south SE across parts of Ventura, Los Angeles
and southern Kern county.

Earlier Today:

Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Central Northwest Territories/Ontario:
Numerous wildfires in northern/central Saskatchewan continue to produce
moderately dense to dense smoke moving north.  The residual smoke
stretches across a large section of central Canada with dense smoke
extending in/around northeast Saskatchewan, a small section of western
Manitoba and into southern sections of the Northwest Territories.
Moderately dense smoke spreads a little farther east and south into
Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Light smoke extends well north into the
Northwest Territories and much farther south into Manitoba and beginning
to reach sections of western Ontario.

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.