Thursday, June 28, 2007

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

 


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.