DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600 July 29, 2007
Northern Rockies/High Plains: A pall of dense smoke from numerous fires over northern and central Idaho and western Montana is seen covering all of Montana and much of the northern two thirds of Idaho with the most dense portion now emerging from the Rockies and moving across central Montana. Dense smoke has also settled like a blanket over the valleys of Valley and Idaho counties in Idaho. The most active fire this morning is near the junction of Flathead, Pondera and Glacier counties. This large area of smoke has also spilled over into southern Saskatchewan and extreme northwest Wyoming. A narrow ribbon of moderately dense to dense smoke at a higher level extends from central Montana eastward into west central North Dakota and then curves to the southeast reaching northeast South Dakota. Additional fires in southeast British Columbia are producing light to moderate smoke that is drifting to the northeast into central Alberta. California: Locally dense smoke from the fire complex in western Siskiyou county in northern California has mainly settled into the valley areas of western Siskiyou. The long running blaze in central Santa Barbara county is still active this morning and producing a narrow plume of low level smoke that is drifting to the south across the coast. It is difficult to detect any smoke over the water with extensive clouds across the region but there is likely an area of smoke over at least the eastern Channel Islands. Higher level smoke from the fire is moving north across the central valley and reaches to the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada east of the Sacramento Valley. Western Great Lakes: Residual smoke from fires in northern Canada as well as numerous fires in northwest Minnesota is seen over northern Minnesota, extreme northern Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan ans western Lake Superior. The smoke is mainly thin. Northwest Canada: A few fires were observed over the northern Yukon and western Northwest Territory west of Great Bear Lake. They were producing moderate to dense smoke that was drifting to the west but did not reach the Alaska border. Extensive clouds were seen over Alaska. Ruminski