DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 23, 2010
Canada: There is considerable uncertainty as to the extent of the smoke across Canada this evening due to extensive cloudiness over most of the Prairie provinces. It is felt that smoke is mixed with much of the cloud cover due to the prevailing winds that are driving both cloud and smoke. The smoke likely extends from the source region of fires in central British Columbia (although the fires appear to have greatly diminished) eastward across central Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and into southwest Hudson Bay. A separate area of light to moderately dense smoke was over northwest Hudson Bay and adjoining Nunavut. Another fairly large area of smoke remained over much of mainland Newfoundland and the adjoining Labrador Sea. Great Lakes: An area of light to moderately dense smoke was over the western Great Lakes. An embedded area of moderately dense to dense smoke extended from the western tip of Lake Superior northward into western Ontario. Idaho: A massive fire over southwest Idaho which has scarred more than 200,000 acres in the past 24 hours, was producing a plume of light to moderately dense smoke that was fanning out as it spread to the southeast, covering portions of extreme northeast Nevada, northwest Utah and south central Idaho. Washington: An area of blowing dust was seen in evening satellite imagery originating on the east slopes of the Cascades in northwest Washington and spreading out to the east across Douglas county and points eastward. Nevada/California: Areas of blowing dust were being kicked up by strong, gusty winds this afternoon and evening. One area was coming from the Carson sink in west central Nevada. This dust was moving to the east southeast into central Nevada. Another area of blowing dust was originating along the California/Nevada border southeast of Mono Lake near the town of Benton, California. The dust was moving south into Mono and Inyo counties. Hawaii: A fire on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the Big Island is generating a plume of moderately dense to dense smoke that was moving to the west and reaching the coast and then turning to the southwest. At sunset the smoke had reached a point 140km to the southwest of the southern tip of the Big Island. 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