DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
Northern California: Each large fire complex: Blue 2/Siskiyou, Panther, and the Bear Wallow Complexes are producing moderate to very dense smoke that is covering much of far SW Siskiyou, S Del Norte and the northern ½ of Humboldt counties as well as extending a few miles offshore. The Bear Wallow Complex is particularly dense as it merges with the other smoke moving west then south. A large area of thin to moderate residual smoke from this morning and yesterday can be seen extending south from the more dense smoke along the coastline as far south as 36N and northern San Fransisco Bay Area...though the thin smoke is covers only Trinity, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Sonoma counties. S California: The fire in E Fresno county near/in Kings Canyon NP and Sequoia NF is currently covered by showers and storms, but thin to moderate smoke can be seen extending west from the cloud cover over the San Joaquin Valley across much of W Fresno county and San Benito county. A small fire NE of San Diego produced a small puff of thin smoke that moving ENE across the N Laguna Mtns. Oregon: A large fire SW of Crater Lake has been quite active today with moderate to dense smoke moving due west out past I-5. However, thin smoke has also been fanning out north and south on the western side of the spine of the Cascade Range and extends nearly to the CA state line and melds with smoke from the Rattle fire in NW Lane county. Similarly the Rattle fire is producing moderately dense smoke but it is moving nearly in all directions with the most dense moving S, SE and E along higher elevations. N Idaho/E and SE Washington/NE Oregon: A large area of thin to moderate smoke can be seen across N ID and W WA from multiple agricultural burns over SE Spokane and E Whitman counties in WA and from S Kootenai southeastward across W Idaho, Valley and W Custer counties. This smoke is mixed with isolated towering cumulus and showers but is generally moving due S to SSE. A area of moderately dense smoke from numerous agricultural fires in far SE Walla Walla county is moving due south into NE OR and covers much of Umatilla and far W Union counties to the Grant county line. Idaho: A fire in the Owyhee Mtns in W Owyhee county is producing thin smoke that is moving SE in a line about 20km wide and extends into north central Elko county, NV. Thin smoke from the South Barker fire can be seen moving SE covering Camas county. Gallina