DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 08, 2009
Alaska/Canada: A large and very dense smoke plume continues to be analyzed over from the Bering Strait/Alaska and through a large portion of Canada. The smoke continues to originate from a large number of wildfires analyzed over sections of Alaska and the Yukon although cloud cover has somewhat limited that to some extent this evening. This evening the main axis of the plume extended from the Bering Strait through central Alaska and then to the southeast through northern portions of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and then through the southern portions of Hudson Bay. An earlier extension of the plume seen over southern Ontario and Quebec was much more difficult to detect on evening satellite imagery. British Columbia/Washington: A significant number of wildfires continue over a good portion of British Columbia and this continues to produce a rather large and dense smoke plume over most of British Columbia and was seen dropping southwest and covered sections of Washington before being obscured by mid and high cloud cover. Hanna 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