Tuesday, September 6, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z September 7, 2011


Currently:
Northwest US/Northern Rockies/Northern and Central Great Basin:
Wildfires continue to flare up across parts of Idaho, Montana and
Oregon.  Areas of thick residual smoke from fires in Idaho and Montana
are moving south across parts of southern Idaho, eastern Nevada, and
western Utah.  The smoke is also spreading east northeast into parts of
central/eastern Montana and extending into North Dakota and now reaching
western Minnesota.  Numerous wildfires in Idaho are producing new and
very heavy smoke mostly heading south across the state.  In Oregon the
wildfires are spreading smoke across parts of the northern region of the
state and into southern Washington before combining with smoke in Idaho.
Lighter smoke is spreading south into northern California.

Texas:
Numerous fires across eastern Texas are continuing to produce moderately
dense to dense smoke pushing as far south as northeast Mexico, into the
western sections of the Gulf of Mexico and central Texas.

Northern Plains/Upper Mississippi Valley/Southern Canada:
Multiple fires across this region are producing light to moderately
dense smoke. The smoke is mostly heading north into Canada with a couple
plumes over southern Canada producing light smoke heading south into
North Dakota.

J Kibler


Earlier Today:

Northwest US/northern US Rockies:
Two distinct areas of thin to moderately-dense remnant smoke can be
seen across the northwest U.S. in this morning's satellite imagery from
GOES-West. The larger area is located across eastern and southern Montana
and over southern Idaho.  This area of remnant smoke is from several
large fires that continue to burn across Idaho and western Montana.
Second area is mostly stretched across portions of northern Oregon and
southeastern Washington.  This second area of remnant smoke is due to
fires burning across Oregon.

South Dakota/Nebraska:
Thin remnant smoke can be seen across portions of south-central South
Dakota and north-central Nebraska ahead of cloud shield from weather
system located across central Rockies.  Origin of smoke is from wildfires
burning across Northwest US/northern US Rockies.

Texas:
Remnant smoke and new smoke plumes are seen across portions of eastern
Texas this morning due to multiple wildfires in the eastern half
of Texas.  Area of smoke is moderately dense and is tracking in a
southward direction.

Warren


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.