DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1615Z September 06, 2007
Wyoming/NW Colorado: Dense smoke from Moonlight fire from 2 days ago is still embedded in the center of an upperlevel cyclone across central WY at this time and is moving due east across the state. Currently the band of hvy smoke is about 200km wide centered in a line from the northern tip of the Bighorn Mtns in ext southcentral MT to the central Routt county in CO. Thins smoke then extends back SW across the deserts of E UT into the next discussed area below. N Arizona/S Nevada/E California: A pocket of moderate smoke from the Moonlight fire can be seen over N Coconino county, centered over the Grand Canyon with the southern reaches of the smoke as far south at the westward bend in the Colorado River. Then the area thins out to a narrow E-W strand that is about 25km wide that travels along the Grand Canyon due west to Las Vegas and west across S Inyo county to around Mt. Whitney then over the Sierra Nevada where it melds in with the next decribed area below. This line/area is shifting SE but western portions are moving due south. California: The thin smoke mentioned above connects up to moderate to dense smoke that covers the central valley of California as far south as Hanford/Visalia where the smoke is mainly mid to low level and mixes with smoke from the Lick fire around Salinas and Monterey Bay. The moderate to dense smoke continues out to into the Pacific between Monterey Bay to 36N126W to 39N124W band back onshore around Santa Rosa and Napa (though the coastal mountains have blocked some of the smoke but helped funnel it through Oakland/San Francisco Bay (increasing the density over that area as well). Most of this smoke is moving SW. Moderate to dense smoke covers the north central valley from Sacramento north to just south of Redding where the very dense smoke that is directly being emitted out of the Moonlight fire (due west) in a 50km wide plume that covers all of Tehama and NWern Plumas county. Northern Plains and Northeastern US: Cloudiness from showers and thunderstorms has been obscurring the thin smoke from the central Idaho and NW Montana fires across MT, ND, N MN and central woodland Ontario though some smoke can be seen on the periphery of the clouds including pockets moving NE over James Bay and due E across Lake Superior and SE Ontario. The descending (southward moving) portion of the eastern side of the upperlevel ridge is also transporting this thin to moderate smoke from Ontario into SW Quebec, NY, New England, Maine, and out into the North Atlantic around St. George's Band toward the Bermuda area. Midatlantic region of US: Though it is difficult to fully descern, thin smoke from ID/MT (as decribed above) can be seen moving S to SSW across NJ/DE/MD/E VA into the Outer Banks of NC as the flow become divergent in the exit region of the jet. This area could extend even further SE into NC/SC/GA mixed with haze, but at this time sun angles and background ground color make it very difficult to say diffinitively. Gallina