Friday August 08, 2008

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z AUGUST 09, 2008

Northern California/Oregon/Washington/Western and Central Canada:
Wildfires burning in northern California (counties of Siskiyou, Del
Norte, Trinity), in Oregon (counties of Harney, Linn, Lane and Wasco)
and Washington (county of Okanogan) are producing a large area of smoke
that extends north into Oregon, Washington in the US and British Columbia,
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories in Canada.
Dense smoke extends just north of the source of the fires in northern
California and Washington with moderately dense smoke into western/central
Oregon, central/eastern Washington, southeast British Columbia and a small
part of western Alberta.  Light smoke extends on the outside regions
of the smoke in the US and stretches into eastern British Columbia,
most of Alberta (except for southern sections) and into portions of
northern/central Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  The smoke combines with the
smoke from the wildfires in/around Great Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca.

Another wildfire is burning in the county of Butte in northern California
(western section of Plumas National Forest) and is producing light
to moderately dense smoke north into Plumas and Lassen counties.
This wildfire has been burning for a few days.

A fire burning in southern Monterrey county is producing a light plume
of smoke moving northeast into San Benito, Merced and Fresno counties.

Northern and Central Plains and Upper and Middle Mississippi Valley:
Residual smoke from wildfires out west and light in density stretches from
eastern Montana and Wyoming into southern North Dakota and Minnesota,
most of South Dakota, northern Nebraska and farther east into Iowa,
Missouri and parts of eastern Kansas.

Saskatchewan/Alberta/Northwest Territories:
Wildfires just north/near Lake Athabasca and south/near Great Slave Lake
are producing moderately dense to dense amounts of smoke moving east
to northeast in direction.  The smoke is combining with the residual
smoke from the fires in northern California, Oregon and Washington.
The area of moderately dense smoke stretches from west of Great Slave
Lake to near 102W.  Light smoke stretches from southern sections of the
Northwest Territories south and covering most of Manitoba and parts of
western Ontario.
Minnesota:  Numerous fires in Roseau county in northern Minnesota are
producing light to moderately dense smoke moving north into a small
section of southeast Manitoba
JK









 


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.