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