DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z JUNE 26, 2008
California/Western US to North Central Plains: At least a handful of large wildfires and much more numerous somewhat smaller wildfires in the north central part of California continue to emit a large mass of smoke which covers much of California, Nevada, southern Oregon, southern Idaho, northern Utah, Wyoming, southern Montana, northern Colorado, and possibly extends eastward into the north central Plains over South Dakota and Nebraska. Within this large area of smoke, moderately dense to dense smoke covered much of northern and central California, including the San Francisco Bay region. The moderately dense to dense smoke also extended northeastward over southeastern Oregon, northern and western Nevada, southern Idaho, southwestern Montana, and western Wyoming. Over coastal west central California, the Indian fire in Monterrey County continued to produce moderately dense to dense smoke that extended southward to near Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands. Additional smoke from this fire which had been offshore appeared to move back inland across southern California including the Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas. Arizona/New Mexico: Relatively thin smoke earlier this morning could be seen through breaks in the clouds across eastern Arizona and portions of western and central New Mexico. This possible smoke was due to ongoing fires in southeastern Arizona. Just prior to sunset a fire rapidly developed just west of Phoenix in central Maricopa County. This fire appeared to emit a locally dense smoke plume which spread in a northward direction. In central New Mexico, a fire along the border of Valencia and Torrance counties produced a moderately dense to dense smoke plume which moved in a northeastward direction. Elsewhere across southern and southeastern Arizona, extensive cloudiness during the afternoon and evening prevented additional details concerning smoke emanating from the fires present there. Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley: Numerous agricultural fires were detected once again over southeastern Missouri, western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and northwestern Mississippi. An extensive area of leftover smoke could be seen in the early morning visible imagery. During the afternoon, more smoke plumes were observed from new fires moving to the north-northeast. Some cloudiness did interfere with smoke detection during the afternoon, but the most numerous plumes were observed with the fires in southeastern Missouri. North Carolina/Virginia: Smoke from the fires in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina was visible during the afternoon moving to the east across extreme southeastern Virginia, the northeastern and central Outer Banks, and offshore. Moderately dense to even locally dense smoke was evident over extreme southeastern Virginia. South Central Canada: Fires in northern Saskatchewan and northwestern Manitoba Provinces of south central Canada were producing moderately dense to dense smoke plumes which appeared to move in an easterly direction although rather widespread cloudiness did interfere with smoke detection during the afternoon and early evening. A larger area of mainly thin smoke was also visible a bit farther to the east covering a good portion of Manitoba Province as well as extreme western Ontario Province and the western fringe of Hudson Bay. This detached area of smoke was also believed to be due to the Saskatchewan and Manitoba fires. JS