DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z September 18, 2007
Idaho/Montana/Wyoming/South Central Canada/Northern Plains: Significant cloudiness covered the region around the large wildfires in central Idaho and western Montana and also covered portions of Wyoming, the Northern Plains, and southern Canada which greatly hindered smoke detection from satellite imagery. As a result, the only smoke visible through breaks in the clouds in morning satellite imagery was a patch over eastern Idaho and western Wyoming. Even though smoke could not be detected in satellite imagery, based on yesterday's smoke analysis and smoke forecast information from the following National Weather Service site (see link below), there is a likelihood that smoke may still be present in the region stretching from Idaho/Montana to the Northern Plains and south central Canada. http://www.weather.gov/aq/sectors/conus.php California: At this time, only a rather small localized smoke plume was observed this morning moving off to the northwest from the Butler 2 Fire burning in southwestern San Bernardino County of southern California. Southern Great Lakes Region to the Southern US/Gulf Coast Region: Early morning GOES-West visible imagery with the favorable low sun viewing angle showed a large region of haze stretching from around the southern Great Lakes region southward to the Gulf Coast/northern Gulf of Mexico. It's possible that this haze may contain just a bit of residual smoke. Yesterday, there were numerous fires (some smoke producing), which were believed to be primarily agricultural or land use/prescribed burns, detected across the mid Mississippi Valley, the southern, and the southeastern US. JS