DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z August 11, 2013
Ohio Valley: Remnant thin smoke from Idaho fires that has drifted East from midweek is trapped by airmass near a shortwave trof situated over SW Ohio at this time. The smoke takes on a typical cyclone shape with a “warm front look with wrapping back behind the cyclone from N Indiana across N OH into central PA... a draping cold front feature extends SW from S OH, across S IN, W KY into S MO. This area is moving east. Great Lakes/Northern Great Plains: Moderate to dense smoke from the last few days out of ID fires continues to move due east covering S SD, S MN, N IA, S WI, Central Lake MI before bending a bit more NE across western Georgian Bay into Ontario. Thin smoke connects this area with Ohio Valley area across N IL and with the Northern Rockies area across NW SD. Northern US Rockies/S BC/S Alberta: Convectively dense smoke from last night's ID Pony, Elk, Mccan, and Beaver Creek Wildfire Complexes can be seen covering ext NE WA, the northern tip of ID, ext SE BC and much of western MT (west of 110W). Thin to moderately dense smoke surrounds this area and extends south across all of ID, SE MT, NW WY, all of S BC up to 55N and S Alberta south of 55N as well. With a deep cyclone off the US NW coast, this smoke is moving N across ID, NW across BC and N WA, and SE across Alberta and W MT (eastward in S MT and NW WY). Moderate to dense smoke covers the Central Snake River Valley in ID likely near the surface leading to visibility issues. North Atlantic, Newfoundland, US Mid-Atlantic seaboard: Thin smoke from Canadian and ID fires over the past week extend along the cold from from South of Greenland, across the eastern tip of Newfoundland then arcing back W from 45N55W to around the Delmarva seaboard around 75W (though not directly overland). This is all moving NE at the northern portion of the band, and E along the center and southern extents. Canada: Due to the numerous very large fire complexes across the Yukon and NW Territories, N Alberta, N Saskatchewan, and NW Manitoba... much of Northern and Central Canada area at least covered with thin smoke... some moderate smoke can be seen on the north side of the main upper low in the N Hudson Bay, but the bulk of very dense smoke is oriented in the main westerly belt that divides the upper low and the ridging between the upper low off the US NW coast. A 100km wide swath of this very dense smoke extends from far E Quebec, across Central Ontario (Across Thunder Bay/N tip of Lake Superior) across the large Manitoban lakes to Reindeer Lake and Lake Athabasca. Further north another dense area has been pulled north across the NW Nunavut/NW Territory boarder into the Northwest Passages/Victoria Island. Moderately dense smoke covers other portions of the Yukon Territory near their sources. Gallina THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF 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