Sunday, August 22, 2010

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

 


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.