DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 18, 2010
Southwestern Canada/Northwestern and North Central US/Eastern Pacific/California: The numerous large fires across portions of northern and west central to southwestern British Columbia Province in southwestern Canada continued to emit large quantities of dense smoke which moved in multiple directions. A swath of moderately dense to dense smoke moved in a southeasterly direction across the southern portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan Provinces into northeastern Washington state, northern Idaho, northern Montana, northern North Dakota, and into northwestern Minnesota. A larger surrounding mass of thinner density smoke covered areas even farther to the south and east stretching from Oregon eastward to the western Great Lakes region. Thin smoke also attributed mainly to the British Columbia fires moved southward along the Pacific Northwest coast and began wrapping back inland to the east over the western portions of Oregon, and northern and central California. This particular region of smoke was not easily discernible in satellite imagery off the west coast over the ocean due to a poor background contrast with widespread low clouds present. The thin smoke only became visible late this afternoon over land with the favorable low sun angle and better background contrast. West Central Canada/South Central Canada: Fires in northern Saskatchewan Province and in portions of the Northwest Territories mainly southeast of the Great Slave Lake were producing moderately dense to locally dense smoke plumes which were moving primarily in a south to southeast direction. The smoke plumes then combined into a larger thinner density swath which moved southeastward over Lake Winnipeg toward southwestern Ontario Province. Alaska/Northwestern Canada: Fires could still be seen over east central Alaska, but no smoke was detected in satellite imagery due to widespread cloudiness. A band of thin smoke was visible earlier today originating from the fires in British Columbia and moving to the north and northwest over the Yukon, extreme northeastern Alaska, and the Arctic Ocean. Oregon/California/Nevada: At least 3 point sources for blowing dust were visible this afternoon and early evening over south central Oregon, northeastern California, and northwestern Nevada. The dust in south central Oregon moved to the north, while the plumes in northeastern California and northwestern Nevada moved to the northeast. Earlier Today...A leftover patch of thin smoke was visible extending from the Labrador Sea northeastward toward Greenland. It was not known the exact source for this area of leftover smoke, but it was believed to most likely be from either the larger fires in northern Saskatchewan or the larger fires in British Columbia. JS 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