DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z August 09, 2010
Numerous fires across Saskatchewan continue to emit copious amounts smoke. The smoke covers a large portion of Northern North America described in areas below. Smoke from the British Colombia fires are beginning to mix into the overall smoke coverage. North Central Canada: Very dense smoke covers all of the NW Territories from the MacKenzie River eastward and continues to move NW to NNW. New dense smoke can be seen emitting from fires across NW Manitoba, N Saskatchewan into SE NW Territories, though cloud cover is beginning to cover the area from the SW. South Central Canada: Remnant thin to moderately dense smoke from BC fire output a few days earlier is lifting NE out of NE MT into SE Alberta and SW Saskatchewan. A line of strong thunderstorms along the a front separates this smoke from moderately dense smoke from the last few days of Saskatchewan fires output... this smoke is moving NE slowly across E Saskatchewan into SW Manitoba and portions of NE ND and NW MN. SE Ontario/SW Quebec: Moderately dense smoke can be seen across SE Ontario and Lake Superior moving due E rapidly under strong influence from the jet streak on the south side of a large polar vortex. This smoke is remnant from the Saskatchewan fires as well, and is moving into extreme SW Quebec. Clouds across the St. Lawrence obscure smoke that is likely connected to the next area of discussion Newfoundland/Tip of Greenland: Thin to moderately dense smoke can be seen lifting out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence across Newfoundland into the N Atlantic just south of the tip of Greenland. This smoke is rapidly moving ENE and could likely affect Iceland and N Ireland/UK over the next day or so. US East Coast: Overall haze and pollution can be seen coming from nearly all major urban centers along the east coast but a thin veil of smoke can be seen just off the VA coast moving NE to just about 50km S of Cape Race. Louisiana: A fire along the Sabine river near Berr Ferry or Evans in E Vernon Parish produced a plume of moderate smoke that has become detached from the source and can be seen drifting NE into Central Natchitoches Parish. Southern California/Southern Nevada: A semicircle of light smoke wraps from the central Sierra Nevada just south of Lake Tahoe into the south central valley and the southern Sierra and then curls to the northeast into southern Nevada. This is remnant smoke from the British Columbia fires of the past week or so, with some additional contribution from more local fires in the Sierra, which has gotten pulled into a large upper level circulation center. Gallina/Ruminski 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