Friday, July 30, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1930Z July 30, 2010

Western/Central Canada/Northern US Plains:

A large and expansive area of moderate to dense smoke covered a large
section of western and central Canada and extended into the north central
part of North Dakota. The plume of smoke was stretched from the Yukon
Territory and northern British Columbia across the Northwest Territories
and western Nunavut, southeastward over parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
Hudson Bay, Ontario, and reached western Quebec. The large area of smoke
appears to have originated from two areas of concentrated fire activity;
northern Saskatchewan and the southeastern portions of the Northwest
Territories and northwestern British Columbia and the southern Yukon
Territory.

Another area of moderately dense smoke over portions of southern British
Columbia and Alberta was the result of numerous fires burning in south
central British Columbia and a few in north central Washington state. Much
of this second area of smoke was being wrapped into an upper low over
northwest Alberta.

Northeast Canada:
A thin plume of aerosols believed to be remnant smoke from the wildfires
in western/central Canada was seen along a frontal boundary being swept
off the coast of Labrador.

Mid-Atlantic/Northeast US:
A band of aerosols believed to be remnant smoke transported from the
Canada fires southeastward across the Great Lakes yesterday was seen
stretching along a frontal boundary from southeast VA to New Brunswick,
Canada.

Kansas:
A thin patch of aerosol that may have been remnant smoke from several
agricultural fires in the state yesterday was seen over the central part
of Kansas this morning.

California:
Two small patches of smoke were seen over southern California this
morning that originated from the Crown fire yesterday. The remnant smoke
was generally thin in nature.

Sheffler

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.