DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z June 29, 2007
Northern US Great Plains (MT, SD, E WY, E CO, W NE): Smoke from prior days' emissions from the Horse Creek Fire in western WY and the Madison Arm fire of S MT have combined into a large area of thin, moderately dense and dense smoke over a large portion of the upper US Great Plains. A comma of thin smoke can be seen across eastern MT and extreme southern Saskatchewan that expands into a large area of thin to moderately dense smoke over S and SE MT, nearly all of WY and extreme W SD (west of Black Hills). Further south along the WY/SD/NE state line thunderstorms mix with the smoke, but pockets of moderately dense to dense smoke can be seen through the breaks in the line of thunderstorms to another pocket of dense smoke over NE CO. The Horse Creek fire continues to spew convectively dense smoke that is moving ENE across Western and central WY. The plume covers most of Fremont county and S Hot Springs county, extending to the Natrona county line and is about 100km wide (30km wide near the fire source before it expands a bit). Moderately dense smoke can be seen N and S of the convectively dense plume in the valley between the Salt River and Wind River Mtn Ranges as far north as the Gros Ventre Range. The Madison Arm fire of S MT is producing moderate to dense smoke that is moving more NE as far as Harlowton in Wheatland county (this covers portions of NW Yellowstone NP). The plume is about 35km wide. Utah: A new fire in the extreme N portion of UT near the ID/WY border east of Bear Lake is producing a line of moderately dense smoke that is moving north along the ID/WY line. The plume is about 15km wide and 70 long but is currently being obscured by passing cirrus band. A new fire very close to Orem, UT is producing a 5km wide plume of thin to moderate smoke that is moving NE along US 189 between Orem and Heber City. A new fire SW of Manti in SE Sanpete county in the Fishlake NF is exploding with covectively dense smoke that is mainly moving E...though the explosive expansion nearing the tropopause is spreading the smoke northward as well as far north as Utah county line. The plume is about 75km wide and extends as far east as the Grand/Emery county line. California: A new fire on the Hunter-Liggett Mil Res is producing a towering column of smoke that expanded equally in all directions until very high level winds began to push the plume rapidly due east over the last hour as far as the Kings county line. The cloud is about 25km wide. Alaska: The old Boundary fire near 63N141W has reactivated today and is producing moderately dense smoke that is moving W and extends about 85km to the W. Saskatchewan/N Alberta/NW Territories: Quite a few new fires developed today across northern Saskatchewan and the SE portions of the NW Territories, including yesterday's fire SE of Cree Lake. Their smoke along with smoke from the Wood Buffalo NP fire, fire SW of Fort Resolution and a large amount of remnant smoke from last weekends' fire west of the Mackenzie River (W of Norman Wells) is covering a very large portion of the wilderness of the Great White North. Moderate smoke covers much of the western Artic islands of Canada, including Banks, Melville and Victoria, into the NW Territories from the Mackenzie River Delta across the Great Bear and Slave Lake to the new fires between Great Slave and Lake Athabasca, most of this smoke continues to move east or north. The most dense smoke can be seen being currently emitted from the Wood Buffalo NP fire and the new fires in SE portions of the NW Territories, and the fire SE of Cree Lake. Most of this smoke is being stretched out NW to SE in a very narrow shear zone between the large synoptic scale ridge over BC/SW Alberta and the very large upper low over Hudson Bay. So the smoke is moving both NW and SE from these fires. A thin ribbon from earlier this week's fires has been caught up more by the trof's influences and is moving SE across Central Canada from the southern tip of Reindeer Lake to the northern tip of the Lake Winnipeg to near Lake Nipigon; this band is about 150km wide. Gallina