Saturday July 12, 2008

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z JULY 13, 2008

California/Great Basin/Central Rockies/Central Plains/Great Lakes:
Heavy, dense smoke from the numerous fires burning in northern California
covered much of the northern and central portions of the state and
extreme southern Oregon with light to moderate smoke over most of the
remainder of southern California. The heavy to moderately dense smoke
also extended eastward into much of northern and central Nevada, and
northern Utah. Light to moderate smoke then continued eastward across
Colorado and northern New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana,
northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.  Moderate to dense smoke extended
off much of the California coast southward across the Channel Islands
to offshore of the Baja Peninsula.

Washington:
A fire along the Chelan/Douglas county border north of Wenatchee had
a plume of dense smoke extending east and southeast into Adams county
with a broader area of light smoke reaching northward to the Canadian
border over eastern Okanogan and western Ferry.

Saskatchewan/Central Northwest Terriorites/Manitoba/Northern
Plains/Ontario:
Two fires in Northwest Territories are adding smoke to the broader
region. One fire was on the western shore of Great Slave Lake and
the other north of Lake Athabasca. The smoke initially extended
east of the fires and became mixed with a larger area of smoke that
wrapped counterclockwise around a large storm system southeast of Lake
Winnipeg. The light to moderately dense smoke covered much of eastern
Saskatchewan, western Manitoba, the Dakotas, southern Minnesota, northwest
Wisconsin, across Lake Superior and into Ontario.

Hawaii:
It is likely that there is some smoke mixed in with the tremendous amount
of vog being generated from the volcano as the lava flows over vegetated
areas. The smoke is moving to the south-southwest over the open ocean. A
brief fire on Maui early this morning had a puff of smoke that moved to
the west and quickly dissipated.

Alaska:
There are a few fires in the interior: about 100 km south of Tanana,
near Bettles and southeast of Ambler. Clouds make smoke identification
difficult but it is likely that there is smoke being generated from
these blazes. The smoke would most likely be drawn northward.

New England/Mid Atlantic:
There is possibly an area of remnant smoke mixed with clouds and haze that
is seen extending from eastern Virginia and Maryland across New Jersey
and eastern Pennsylvania, southeast New York and southern New England.

Ruminski






 


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.