DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0225Z July 27, 2010
Northwest Territories/Nunavut/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Ontario/Great Lakes region: This evenings satellite imagery continues to indicate an expansive area of moderate to extremely dense smoke that covers the eastern Northwest Territories and then extends southeastward through southwestern Nunavut, northern and northeastern Saskatchewan, northern Manitoba and then covers much of Ontario and continues into the northern Great Lakes area of the US. The expansive smoke plume is from the numerous active fires throughout northern Saskatchewan and neighboring areas and from the current and previous fires in the central Northwest Territories. Widespread cloud cover over a large portion of the area this evening made the smoke analysis rather difficult and it is quite possible the areal extent and density of the smoke could be larger than what is depicted. Southwest Northwest Territories/British Columbia/Alberta/southern Saskatchewan: An area of light to moderate density smoke was being wrapped cyclonically around low pressure over central Saskatchewan and covered portions of the southwest Northwest Territories, northeast British Columbia and western and southern Alberta. The source of this smoke was likely the large number of fires over the southern portions of the Northwest Territories. This smoke plume then appeared to merge with a light to moderate density smoke plume over southern British Columbia and southern Alberta. The source of the latter smoke plume is the wildfire that continues to burn over southwest British Columbia. North Dakota/South Dakota/Minnesota: An area of light smoke that was earlier analyzed over eastern Montana and the Dakotas, appears as though it has moved east and was detected over the eastern Dakotas and northwestern Minnesota at sunset this evening. Widespread cloud cover with the developing thunderstorms over the Dakotas prevented a more detailed analysis of this area of smoke. The source of this smoke is believed to be the Cardinal Creek and Dominic Point wildfires over western Montana. Hanna 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