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