Tuesday, August 03, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0315Z August 04, 2010

Alaska/Western Canada:
An area of moderately dense to dense smoke continues to move south
SE across parts of central/northern Alaska into the Yukon and western
sections of the Northwest Territory.  The area of moderately dense smoke
stretches from far eastern Alaska into northern/western Yukon Territory.
Very dense smoke extends across a large area of the Yukon Territory,
western sections of the Northwest Territory and into northern British
Columbia.  Light smoke stretches back into central/northern sections
of Canada.
Another large area of moderately dense to dense smoke stretches
from northern to southern British Columbia from wildfires burning
in the northwestern region and the southern regions of the province.
The moderate to heavy dense smoke spread south from the northern British
Columbia into the central sections with areas of dense smoke in the
southern portions.

Western and Northern US/Southern Canada:
Wildfires burning across the western US and southern Canada are emitting
a large area of smoke that stretches across the northern tier of the US
and southern tier of Canada.  Moderately dense smoke lies across parts
of central/eastern Washington, northern Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and
north into southern Canada.  Lighter smoke extends south into Oregon,
northern California and as far east as northern Minnesota.  An area of
moderate to heavy dense smoke was present over central California whose
source was a mix of smoke moving inland off the coast that had moved
southward from the Pacific Northwest and Canada and also smoke from
wildfires in the Sierras of California.

Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Ontario/Quebec:
Light smoke was still present from Saskatchewan to Quebec mainly from
fires producing heavy dense smoke over Saskatchewan yesterday and
continuing into this evening.

Liddick


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.