DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z July 18, 2006.
Minnesota/Wisconsin/Ontario: The wildfires throughout Lake and Cook counties are continuing to produce a large area of dense smoke moving south across Lake Superior and into north and central Wisconsin. Additional fires are burning across the border in Ontario just north of St Louis and Lake counties in Minnesota. They are emitting thin plumes of moderately dense smoke. The smoke is just one of the contributors to the overall smoke coverage in the central US. Great Plains into the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys: Remnant smoke from the massive fire in the Southwest of the past few days is seen covering Nebraska, Kansas and northeast Oklahoma and extending east across southwest Iowa, Missouri and northern Arkansas and into the Ohio valley and northern Tennessee valley. The smoke thin to moderately dense with the densest part of the plume in a narrow band along its southern edge from southwest Kansas into Oklahoma and into central Arkansas. The smoke mixes with a large area of haze that covers the southern states from east Texas to South Carolina and Kentucky and Tennessee. It is likely that some smoke is mixed in with this area but it is felt that haze is the primary constituent over most of this region. The area over east Texas may be primarily smoke from a large fire in central Arkansas that produced a large amount of smoke last afternoon and evening and continues to burn this morning. The fire is in Perry county and there is an area of moderately dense to dense smoke that covers much of Perry and Conway counties. California and Great Basin: An area of moderately dense smoke from a fire along the Nevada/California border in extreme southern Douglas county Nevada has produced an area of smoke that covers parts of California just south of Lake Tahoe and then curls to the northeast and stretches across Carson City, Storey, Lyon and Churchill counties in Nevada. The smoke then becomes thin and extends across northeast Nevada and into northern Utah and southern Wyoming. Fires in central Utah are also contributing to the area of smoke in the region but the smoke is mixed with broad cloudiness in the region. A fire in the northern Cibola National Wildlife Refuge along the Colorado River has a small plume of smoke that is confine to the vicinity of the fire. Washington/Idaho: A fire in northern Chelan county Washington in the Wenatchee National Forest near Lucerne is producing a narrow, moderately dense to locally dense smoke plume that extends about 50 km to the south. Fires in northeast and northwest Valley county and in central Clearwater county in Idaho are producing local areas of mainly thin smoke confine to the vicinity of the fires. Montana: Several fires along mainly the western half of Fort Peck Lake are producing moderately dense smoke plumes that are all moving to the southeast about 175 km. Northern Plains/southern Canada: Smoke from the large fires around Fort Peck Lake in Montana from yesterday has shifted east and extends from southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba into the Dakotas and western Minnesota. The smoke is mixed with clouds and is thin to locally moderately dense. Great Lakes: The large fires in the arrowhead region of Minnesota in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Cook and Lake counties have produced a long plume of dense smoke that extends south from the fires across central Wisconsin and then curves to the east across southern Lake Michigan and central Michigan into southern Ontario near the Bruce peninsula. Ontario/Manitoba: An area of mainly thin smoke extends from northeast Manitoba southeastward across western Ontario to the north central shore of Lake Superior. This smoke was likely produced from fires in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Northwest Territories: A thin area of smoke along an east/west axis was seen across northern Great Slave Lake. The source of the smoke is likely a couple of fires near the southern Alaska/Yukon Territory border. Ruminski