Wednesday, August 31, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH September 1, 2011


Central/Eastern US:
An expansive area of smoke that was thin to moderate in density covered
much of the center of the country this evening stretching as far east
as the Ohio Valley in the north and Georgia in the south. Haze/mixed
aerosols seen along the Gulf Coast, over the Southeast US, and along
portions of the central Appalachian Mountains also mixed with the south
and eastern edges of the area of remnant smoke. The smoke that is seen
appears to have originated from three different source regions, 1) Lower
Mississippi River Valley where numerous ag burns have been taking place
2) Texas/Oklahoma region where a large amount of fires have persisted
for several days and 3) Oregon/Washington/Idaho/Montana where wildfires
have been producing smoke that has drifted northeastward across the
northern Plains.

Northwestern US:
Numerous wildfires in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana along with other fires in
Washington were producing areas of moderately dense to dense smoke this
evening. In addition, a moderately large area of remnant smoke probably
mixed with blowing dust over southwest Idaho/northeast Nevada/northwest
Utah was present from central Oregon east across southern Idaho to
northwest Wyoming/central Montana. Another small patch of remnant thin
smoke was seen over north Idaho.
A clear plume of blowing dust/sand stretched more than 130 miles
northeastward to the northwest corner of Wyoming from a point just north
of Idaho Falls, ID.

Arizona:
Numerous fires in central Arizona along with the 3,200 acre Edison fire
along the CA/AZ border were producing smoke this evening that drifted east
or northeastward. An area of thin to moderate density remnant smoke either
from yesterday or from earlier today was crossing the north central part
of the state.

Sheffler


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.