DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 31, 2009
Canada/US Northern Plains: Moderately to extremely dense smoke from fires in British Columbia stretched eastward to Hudson Bay and extreme northwest Ontario. Although the eastward progression of this smoke seems to have been arrested, extremely dense smoke was sinking south into the northern Plains of the US. Northern Baja/Southwest US: The large fire in Los Angeles County in conjunction with large fires in northern Baja have generated moderately to extremely dense smoke from northern Baja and southern California northeastward across much of Arizona and Utah as well as portions of south central Nevada, southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado. Nevada: Blowing dust stretched northeastward 220 km from northern Churchill and southern Pershing counties. A significant area of moderately to extremely dense haze...possibly a combination of dust and smoke...stretched from south central Nevada into extreme northwestern Utah. 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