Wednesday, Aug 5, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z August 05, 2009

Northwestern to Western Canada/Alaska:
An large area of moderately dense to dense remnant smoke from wildfires
in Alaska and the Yukon Territory covered most of northwest Canada. The
smoke engulfed most of the Northwest Territory from roughly Great Slave
Lake westward, most of the Yukon Territory and much of Alaska north of
the Alaska Range to the Arctic Coast and into the Beaufort Sea.

Northwest US/Southwest Canada to the Great Lakes:
A broad area of smoke from the numerous fires in British Columbia
with some contribution from fires in California, Oregon, Washington,
Idaho and Montana, extended from northern California across western
Oregon, western and northern Washington and into southern British
Columbia and then eastward across northern Idaho and Montana, southern
Alberta/Saskatchewan, North Dakota, Minnesota  and across most of the
Great Lakes into southern Ontario. Most of this area was light smoke but
there were some areas of moderately dense smoke over the Great Lakes and
also over portions of northern California, Oregon and Washington. The
full extent of the smoke was not discernible over southern British
Columbia and Alberta due to extensive cloud cover this morning.

Texas Panhandle and vicinity:
An area of remnant smoke was seen stretching from southeast Colorado
into northeast New Mexico and the western Texas Panhandle.

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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/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






 


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.