Friday, July 14, 2006

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z July 15, 2006.

Minnesota/Michigan:
A couple of large fires erupted this afternoon in the counties of Cook
and Lake in the arrowhead of northeastern Minnesota. The long and
locally dense smoke plumes were moving in a southeastward direction
across western Lake Superior and into the western portion of the upper
peninsula of Michigan.

Montana/Wyoming/Colorado/The Dakotas/Central Plains:
Major fires continue to burn across southeastern Montana just east
of Billings MT, northeastern Wyoming just east of Sheridan WY, and in
the Black Hills National Forest of far northeastern Wyoming. The smoke
appeared to be very dense in visible satellite imagery as it spread and
fanned out as it moved eastward across southeastern Montana, northeastern
Wyoming, and the western and central portion of both South and North
Dakota. Relatively thinner smoke was observed in evening visible satellite
imagery across the remainder of the Dakotas, western Minnesota, and
even farther south across the Central Plains including portions of Iowa,
Nebraska, Missouri, northern Oklahoma, and eastern Colorado. While it is
likely that a good portion of this smoke is from the large fires burning
in Montana and Wyoming, it is also possible that some older leftover smoke
from the fires farther to the southwest including the very big one burning
in San Bernardino County of southern California may be contributing to
the hazy/smokey appearance on satellite imagery. In addition to this
another very large fire was detected in the Shoshone National Forest in
southern Park County of northwestern Wyoming. The moderately dense to
locally dense area of smoke from this particular fire was moving in an
east-northeast or northeast direction across north central Wyoming.


Western and Southwestern US(Including California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona,
New Mexico):
The massive fire over southwestern San Bernardino county
just north of Palm Springs continues to produce a massive very dense
smoke plume which was fanning out as it moved mainly in a northward
direction. The late afternoon/evening visible imagery also indicated
slightly less dense smoke stretching from off the coast of southern
California just north of Los Angeles, across southern and central
Nevada including the Las Vegas metro area. The smoke thinned out even
more as it extended northeastward across southwestern to northern Utah
including the Salt Lake City area. Significant fires were also detected
over northern Coconino County of northwestern Arizona as well as central
White Pine County of eastern Nevada. These fires were emitting locally
very dense batches of smoke which were generally moving in a northward
direction. A somewhat smaller fire in the mountains just east of San
Diego, CA was producing a moderately dense batch of smoke which  spread
out to the west and north, possibly grazing the eastern fringes of San
Diego. Finally, another very large wildfire near the border of Stanislaus
and Santa Clara Counties of west central California was responsible for
a locally dense area of smoke which was generally moving in a northerly
direction across Sacramento and the Sacramento Valley. Visible imagery
just prior to sunset also showed a rather thin area of possible smoke
covering western New Mexico and a good portion of Arizona. This possible
area of smoke was likely the result of a number of the fires across the
southwestern US, including the large San Bernardino County fire.

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.