DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z August 20, 2009
Southwestern Canada: Several fires continue to burn across southwestern British Columbia including at least one large wildfire. Morning visible satellite imagery shows what is likely to be smoke mixed with fog in some of the valleys of southwestern British Columbia. A patch of moderately dense to locally dense smoke was visible closer to the source of the largest fire. However, cloudiness moving across the region significantly limited additional information on the density and extent of the smoke. Arizona: A patch of thin smoke was observed moving to the south-southeast across central and east central Arizona. This area of detached smoke is likely from the fires burning over north central Arizona and southwestern Utah. Northwestern Atlantic: An aerosol of unknown origin and composition continued to be visible this morning moving eastward over the Atlantic and farther away from the northeastern U.S. coast and southeastern Canada. JS 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