DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THRU 1400Z JULY 23, 2005
West Central Canada to Southeastern Canada: Cloudiness across western and central Canada is limiting the detection of smoke this morning. However, a thin stripe of smoke is visible just north of the large mass of clouds along the far southeastern portion of the Yukon Territory as well as the southern portion of the Northwest Territories, just north of the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. An additional swath of smoke is visible extending southeastward from northern Manitoba Province across central and southeastern Ontario Province and into far southern Quebec Province. The leading edge of the smoke may be nearing northern New York state and northern New England as it continues to spread slowly southeastward. This entire area of smoke is likely the result of the fires burning across Alaska and far western Canada, and possibly residual smoke from the fires over the Northwest Territories between Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake. Alaska: Morning GOES-10 imagery shows a similar situation to what was observed last night. Rather dense smoke from numerous fires burning across Alaska and just over the border into western Canada is visible in a band stretching across central to southeastern Alaska. The western portion of the smoke area has spread across the Bering Strait into portions of northeastern Russia. Over Alaska, the smoke extends from the Seward Peninsula to around Fairbanks then southeastward to the Wrangell Mountains. Western U.S.: Smoke detection across the Southwest is being impeded this morning by leftover debris cloudiness from last night's and this morning's convection. A band of smoke though is currently visible stretching from northern Utah (near Salt Lake City) across central Wyoming to the western Dakotas. This smoke is likely due to a combination of the numerous fires across Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. Its movement has been off to the northeast around the periphery of large sprawling ridge. JS