DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z UTC August 10, 2007
Southeast/Middle Atlantic Region: A large swath of haze covered portions of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, the Southeast, and the Middle Atlantic coastal region. The haze also extended to the east off of the Middle Atlantic states and out over the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to other atmospheric pollutants this area of haze was believed to contain some residual smoke from the large western wildfires which was transported eastward several days ago and has become trapped under the large high pressure ridge. California: A very thick mass of smoke from the Zaca Fire in eastern Santa Barbara County of southern California was observed fanning out to the northwest and northeast during the late afternoon and evening. The smoke covered much of Santa Barbara County and also extended as far to the northeast as central Inyo County. A fire close to the Tuolumne/Alpine County border in east central California was emitting a moderately dense to locally dense smoke plume which to the south of the Lake Tahoe region and into western Nevada. Oregon: A large fire in western Jefferson County of west central Oregon was responsible for a moderately dense to dense smoke plume which moved quickly off to the northeast toward the WA/OR border. Idaho/Montana/Northern and Central US/South Central Canada: Enormous fires burning in western Montana and especially central Idaho were producing tremendous quantities of smoke which spread northeastward covering much of central and eastern Idaho and Montana. The thicker smoke also extended eastward into North Dakota, northern Minnesota, and the southern portions of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario Provinces of southern Canada. Surrounding this dense smoke, thin to moderately dense smoke stretched across the remainder of the Dakotas and Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, northern Missouri, northern Illinois, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior. JS