DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z September 8 2011
Pacific Northwest to the Middle Mississippi Valley: Large fires continue to burn in central Idaho and western Montana resulting in an area of moderately dense to very dense smoke which covered much of Idaho, western Montana, and northern Utah. Farther to the west, more fires over west central and northwestern Oregon, and one over northwestern Washington also produced moderately dense to locally dense smoke which moved mainly in a northerly direction during the day. All of the above mentioned fires were also responsible for a much larger surrounding area of thin to moderately dense smoke which extended all the way from off the Pacific Northwest coast to the Middle Mississippi Valley region. The smoke over the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest was moving to the north into southwestern Canada while the area of smoke from the Central Plains to the Middle Mississippi Valley was moving to the south. Texas/Northern Mexico: A number of large wildfires continued to burn across eastern Texas during the day. Several moderately dense to locally very dense smoke plumes moved in a southerly direction during the afternoon. A large surrounding mass of thin smoke from these fires was visible across a good portion of eastern and southern Texas, the western Gulf of Mexico, and northern Mexico. Minnesota/Wisconsin/Michigan/South Central Canada: Leftover detached smoke mainly from yesterday's agricultural fires over the Northern Plains and south central Canada was seen moving slowly to the southeast across northeastern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and southern and eastern Ontario Province. More fires with smoke plumes visible in satellite imagery were observed during the day over southeastern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, northern North Dakota, and northern Minnesota. JS 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