DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z July 2, 2009
Southern Plains to Southeast US: Thin to moderately dense smoke and haze covered parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana with thin smoke also stretching eastward across Mississippi and Alabama to southwest Georgia. A thin haze can then be seen just off the Southeast coast stretching northeastward along a frontal boundary to just east of the Mid-Atlantic region. Much of the smoke seen over the southern US was leftover from the numerous fires that were burning during the past two days across Kansas and Oklahoma. Additionally, an area of smoke that had moved southeast yesterday from Colorado/Utah had moved into west Texas and the Texas panhandle. Southwest Canada: Two separate bands of SO2 stretched to the east from the Pacific Ocean across central British Columbia, central and central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and western Manitoba. Both bands were roughly 100-125 km wide as of this morning's GOES—11 imagery. Northern Plains/Midwest/South Central Canada: A light haze was seen stretching along the western edge of an upper level trough from southern Manitoba and southeast Saskatchewan southward across eastern North and South Dakota, western Minnesota, western Iowa, eastern Nebraska, and Missouri. It is believed this haze is mostly composed of remnant SO2 that has migrated southward from Canada after making it over the top of the upper level ridge in place over the western US, though some other aerosols may also be mixed in. Northeast Canada: A large area of unknown aerosols was positioned from northern Hudson Bay across eastern Nunavut and extreme northern Quebec before reaching the Labrador Sea. Alaska: Thin to moderate smoke was seen over south central Alaska. Most of this smoke was remnant from previous fires but several active fires in the area are also adding additional smoke to the mixture. SO2 from volcanic activity covers most of the western half of the state with the most concentrated SO2 over southwest Alaska, the Aleutians, and the Gulf of Alaska. A thin band of SO2 was also still present over the border between Alaska and the Yukon Territory, with the band stretching southeastward into northwest British Columbia. Sheffler More information on the areas of smoke described above as well as others can be found at the locations listed below. 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