DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0030Z September 9, 2005
Northern US Plains and Upper Mississippi River Valley: A large area of moderately dense smoke is along a line and on average 300km wide from Miles City, MT northeast to Bismark, ND then southeast to Aberdeen, SD to Des Moines, IA to Burlington IA. This covers the eastern third of MT, all of ND, the NE half of SD, the western quarter of MN, and all of IA. This smoke is from the multiple large fires burning in ID and MT from last evenings activity. NE Minnesota: A fire that has been burning across NE St. Louis county NW of Ely is producing a fan shape plume that extends about 100km from the NE to the E across the Canadian boarder and nearing the coast of Lake Superior. MT/ID: The Hazard Lake fire along the Lewis and Clark and Teton county line is producing dense smoke in a 16km wide line to the NE 200km to SW Hill county, MT. Convectively dense smoke from multiple fires including the Valley Road, Gregory, Frank Church, Mustang, Red River Complexes covers the following counties in Idaho: NW Custer, Lemhi, SE half of Idaho and counties in Montana: Ravalli, N Beaverhead, Granite, Deer Lodge, Silver Bow, Jefferson, Broadwater, Meagher, Cascade, Judith Basin, S Lewis and Clark, Powell, S Missoula. The smoke is more concentrated and extends further NE due to stronger upper-level flow with a strong jet ahead of a digging upper level trough. Thin smoke from multiple smaller fires (most likely agricultural) covers the remainder of the chimney stack of ID including the counties of Clearwater, Shoshone,S Bonner, Kootenai, Benewah, Latah, Nez Perce, Lewis, and the remainder of Idaho county that is not covered by the aforementioned dense smoke. Gallina