DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1530Z June 7, 2009
Western Canada/Alaska: A large area of smoke of varying density continued to be visible in cloud free regions across northern and eastern Alaska as well as western Canada from the Yukon Province southward across British Columbia. Several large fires scattered in southeastern Alaska and western Canada, including Yukon and British Columbia Provinces were responsible for this large mass of smoke. It is likely that more fires and smoke were occurring in this region, but cloudiness in certain locations inhibited fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. Southwestern Canada/Washington: The large fire in southwestern British Columbia continued to emit smoke of varying density this morning which appeared to move mostly to the southeast into north central Washington. The thickest smoke in satellite imagery was confined to the valleys in British Columbia closer to the actual fire. It is not known if the smoke reached western Washington, including the Seattle metro area due to cloudiness in that region. However, the National Weather Service smoke forecast indicates the potential for some smoke to have spread into western Washington... http://www.nws.noaa.gov/aq/sectors/conus.php South Central Canada to the Great Lakes Region: Extensive cloudiness prevented the detection of smoke in this region. It is not known if any residual detached smoke from the ongoing fires in Alaska and western Canada was present here, but satellite imagery from previous days did indicate the possible presence of smoke. JS THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov