DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 7, 2009
Alaska/NW Canada: Much of southeast and east central Alaska is covered in smoke this morning from the numerous fires that continue to burn. The smoke extends south across the Kenai Peninsula into the Gulf of Alaska and also to the east into much of western Yukon in northwest Canada. A thin ribbon of aerosol was also observed in an arc extending from the northwest portion of British Columbia across the southeast tip of Yukon and across much of Northwest Territory including Great Slave Lake. It is not clear whether this is residual smoke or sulfur dioxide (SO2) from the emissions from Sarychev volcano. Pacific Northwest into southern Canadian prairies: An area of aerosol, which is believed to be SO2, was seen in morning visible imagery extending from the southwest corner of Oregon northeastward into southeast Washington, northern Idaho and Montana and into southern Alberta and Saskatchewan. California: Areas of smoke were seen from active fires still burning over northern California at the confluence of Humboldt, Siskiyou and Trinity counties. The smoke was mainly confined to the vicinity of the fires. Smoke from a fire in northern Tulare county has spread out along the west slopes of the Sierra Nevada across Tulare and Fresno counties. Colorado: A patch of very thin residual smoke was seen in early visible imagery moving across eastern Colorado. This may be residual smoke from a fire in central Utah yesterday. Ruminski 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