DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z October 27, 2005
Southern Canada/Northern Great Lakes region: A handful of significant fires located across the southern tier of Ontario Province in south central Canada were emitting dense smoke plumes which were moving in a southerly direction. The leading edge of some of the smoke plumes had spread close to the northern portion of Lake Superior as well as Lake Huron. Southern and Southeastern US: Rather small smoke plumes were scattered across Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, as well as Louisiana and the eastern half of Texas. Patches of more concentrated fires were seen over southern Louisiana which created an area of very localized dense smoke. A good sized fire burning in the Apalachicola National Forest in Liberty County of the Florida panhandle was responsible for a narrow but long area of smoke which extended out over the Gulf of Mexico nearly 100 miles from its source. This fire has been burning for several days. Smoke from numerous agricultural burns across the Mississippi Valley region of southeastern Missouri, eastern Arkansas, and western Mississippi had covered a good portion of the area just prior to sunset. Minnesota/North Dakota/Southern Canada: A tremendous number of agricultural fires again was present across western Minnesota, much of North Dakota, and southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba Provinces of southern Canada. A few of these fires had long narrow smoke plumes associated with them. The smoke was moving in a northwesterly direction over western Minnesota and in a more NNW or northerly direction over North Dakota and Canada. South Dakota: At least 2 fires were detected in the Black Hills region of western SD. Smoke from these fires was not as widespread as yesterday, but smaller plumes were still noted moving northward. Western US: A large amount of cloudiness across the western US limited smoke detection. However, some breaks in the clouds over western Oregon allowed for fire and smoke detection. Large clusters of fires across western Oregon were responsible for a large batch of smoke which had spread northeastward into north central Oregon. The most concentrated fires were located over NW Oregon between Interstate 5 and the Cascade Range, southeast of Salem. A second concentrated area of fires was located over southwestern Oregon in Coos County. JS