DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 16, 2010
Currently: Central Canada/Northern US: The moderately dense to dense smoke continues to move south across central Canada with part of it getting wrapped up in the low system. The southern edge of the smoke continues to move east across the northern sections of the US. The wildfires in northern Saskatchewan are producing very thick smoke and adding to the overall smoke issues. Pacific Northwest/Idaho/California: An unidentified aerosol is moving east across Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Idaho. It cannot be confirmed if it's smoke from recent fires in the Pacific Northwest or dust/aerosol from an unknown location. Washington: A fire in eastern Chelan county is producing light to moderately dense smoke moving east into Douglas and Okanogan counties. Also a fire in central Lincoln county is emitting mostly moderately dense to dense smoke east NE into Spokane, Stevens, Pend Oreille counties and northern Idaho. Colorado: A fire in Rio Blanco county is emitting light to moderately dense smoke east into neighboring counties and extending around 150 km from source. Earlier Today: Central Canada/Northern US: Dense smoke from large fires primarily burning in northern Saskatchewan Province of west central Canada continued to produce huge amounts of smoke. Dense smoke from these fires initially moved to the west, then spread both to the south and to the north. Some of the dense smoke moved south and southeastward over far eastern Montana and the Dakotas while another area of dense smoke moved northward and eventually eastward over the area from the Northwest Territories to northern Hudson Bay. Thinner density smoke covered a larger area surrounding the dense smoke including a ribbon which moved eastward and then northeastward across Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, the UP of Michigan, Lake Superior, and eventually into Ontario Province of central Canada. South Central and Eastern US: A large portion of the south central and eastern US was being affected by patches of aerosol of unknown origin and composition. Gulf of Mexico: A batch of aerosol was visible over the western Gulf of Mexico extending inland over coastal southeastern Texas and southward over the Bay of Campeche. Some of this aerosol may be dust/sand transported all the way across the Atlantic from the Sahara in northern Africa. Other aerosol which is believed to be Saharan dust was detected over the western Atlantic including the Bahamas and possibly part of the Florida peninsula though cloudiness there is interfering with detection in satellite imagery. Alaska/Northwestern Canada: Significant cloudiness over Alaska and western Canada has greatly inhibited fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. 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