Saturday, July 23, 2005

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

 


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.