Saturday, July 31, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 1, 2010

Western/Central Canada/Great Lakes region:
Moderate to dense smoke remained covered over most of Canada today
from western Nunavut south to northwest Minnesota/Lake Superior and
from southeast Yukon Territory/British Columbia eastward to Hudson
Bay/southwestern Quebec. The large area of smoke originated from three
areas of concentrated fire activity which have been burning for several
days now; northern Saskatchewan and the southeastern portions of the
Northwest Territories, northwestern British Columbia and the southern
Yukon Territory, and south central British Columbia. An upper low over
the Alberta/Saskatchewan border was wrapping moderately dense smoke
from the British Columbia/southeast Yukon Territory fires eastward. By
tonight, remnant smoke had managed to make its' way across Hudson Bay
to the western shore of northwest Quebec and had seeped southward to
cover parts of northern Minnesota and most of Lake Superior. A piece of
thin to moderately dense smoke that probably had been pulled northward
into the Arctic several days ago was seen drifting back to the west over
north central Nunavut.

Northeast Canada:
Patches of thin smoke were dissipating this evening over the Davis Strait
and becoming indistinguishable among other aerosols seen wrapping into
an Arctic system.

Nova Scotia:
A band of aerosols believed to be remnant smoke transported from the
Canada fires southeastward across the Great Lakes during the past two
days continued to move eastward off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes
and away from Nova Scotia.

Central Plains:
A band of thin smoke was seen along a frontal boundary over northeast
Arkansas, western Kentucky, southern Missouri, and northeast Oklahoma
mixed with other aerosols creating very hazy conditions. The remnant
smoke that is beginning to mix is likely from yesterday's agricultural
fires in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Alaska:
An area of thin smoke was seen over northeast Alaska earlier this
morning, which may have either drifted northwest from the fires in the
Yukon or possibly may have drifted across the Arctic from large fires
in Siberia, given that fire activity has been fairly minimal in Alaska
recently. However, very warm temperatures in much of the state today
sparked and fanned numerous fires north of Fairbanks producing small
patches of moderate density smoke.

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.