Sunday, August 28, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1715Z August 28, 2011

Central Plains/Mid-West/Texas/Northern Gulf of Mexico/Northern and
Central Florida:
Another large area of light, remnant smoke exists today and stretches
from around central Iowa and southern Nebraska southward into Texas and
eastward into the mid and lower-Mississippi Valley region. This continues
to be leftover smoke from the large wildfires that have been burning and
continue to burn through the Pac Northwest and into Montana, Idaho and
Wyoming. An elongated area of what appears to be mostly smoke, possibly
mixed in with other aerosols and Saharan dust is extending through the
northern and central portions of the Gulf of Mexico through Central
Florida and just off the southeast coastline. Additionally, a fairly
large fire that has been burning just south of Lake Pontchartrain is
producing moderately to very dense smoke and is moving southward into
the northern Gulf of Mexico. This fire is adding to the large swath of
smoke currently in the northern and central Gulf.

Eastern Montana/Western South Dakota:
An elongated and relatively thin area of remnant smoke can be seen moving
southeastward through portions of southern and eastern Montana and into
western South Dakota this morning. This is likely to be from the large
fires that have been burning through the Idaho and western Montana region
over the past several days.

Northwest Montana/Northern Idaho:
A relatively small area of very thin smoke could be seen early this
morning moving towards the northeast across the northwest portion of
Montana. This is likely some leftover smoke from the fires that have
been burning through this region over the past several days.

Pacific Northwest:
Several, very large wildfires have been burning over the past several
days through north-central Oregon which has produced a small area of
remnant smoke that could be seen in this morning's imagery near the
Washington/Oregon border.

Belge

THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT
AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME
DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE
FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST
ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF
THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO
THE SOURCE FIRE 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
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT 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.