Tuesday, July 31, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700 UTC July 31, 2007


West-central U.S, central U.S. and south-central Canada:
A very large area of moderate to dense with some very dense smoke
covers most of Montana, central and eastern Wyoming, central and
eastern Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, northern Minnesota,
southeastern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and Ontario.  At 17 UTC,
the densest smoke was in a 100 km wide line from north central Colorado,
through eastern Wyoming, western North Dakota and over Lake Winnipeg.
The smoke came from the fires in Idaho, western Montana and southeastern
British Columbia.  This morning, plumes from individual fires in western
Montana can already be seen.  The smoke is moving eastward.

California:
Moderate to dense smoke from the central Santa Barbara County fire is
covering much of eastern Santa Barbara County.  The smoke extends both
northeastward and southward from the fire.

Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland:
A mix of light smoke and haze covers much of central and southern
Maryland, eastern and southern Kentucky, eastern West Virginia and
western Virginia.

Northwest Territories:
Cloud cover limits smoke detection but an area of moderate smoke or
smoke mixed with haze can be seen moving from southeast of Great Bear
Lake toward Great Slave Lake.  Presumably this smoke is a residual from
previous days fires in western Northwest Territories and east central
Alaska.





 


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.