Tuesday, July 3, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z July 4, 2007

New Mexico/Arizona:
The large group of fires on the central border of New Mexico and Arizona
have been producing light to moderately dense smoke throughout the entire
day. Originally the smoke was moving to the south, but since has shifted
and is moving more towards the southwest mainly affecting the southeastern
counties of Arizona.

Further north in Arizona there is a large fire in central Apache
county that is producing moderately dense to dense smoke that is moving
directly south.

Nevada:
A fire in Lincoln county is producing moderately dense smoke that is
moving south southwest.

Utah:
Late in the evening multiple large fires flared up across the state of
Utah.  The first is located in Iron county, where light to moderately
dense smoke is being produced and is spreading out in a southwest
direction.

Further northeast there is a large fire located in Sanpete county that
was originally producing light smoke, but in the past few hours it
began to produce heavy dense to very dense smoke that is moving to the
east. The smoke has not extended to far from the actual fire, but if
it continues to produce smoke of such heavy density it will soon affect
all the counties to the east and southeast.

The large fire in Duschesne county continued producing quite a bit of
dense smoke today. Earlier in the day it was light to moderately dense
smoke that was moving to the north/northeast, but it is now producing
dense to very dense smoke that is spreading out as it moves to the
east. Mainly affecting northwestern Colorado.

Alaska:
Several fires in the center of Yukon-Koyukuk county flared up late in
the evening, all of which are producing light to moderately dense smoke
that is moving almost directly to the west.

A much larger fire further to the northeast, was producing moderately
dense to dense smoke that was moving northwest, but began to die down
quite a bit later in the evening.

Canada:
A large area of smoke can be seen extending from southern Northwest
Territories, across almost all of northern and central Manitoba, and
into western Quebec.

The main source of this smoke is the large fires located just west of
Lake Athabasca in Saskatchewan.  These two wildfires are producing very
dense smoke that is moving to the east.

Also, slightly further north, just over the border in Northwest
Territories, there are several smaller fires that are contributing to
the massive area of smoke described above.

Banks

 


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.