DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z September 2, 2009
Southern Canada/North and Central Plains/Midwest: Remnant smoke was seen covering a very large portion of southern Canada, the Northern Plains, most of the Midwest, and parts of the Great Lakes region. Most of this smoke is remnant from multiple large wildfires that have been burning in southern British Columbia over the past few days. Smoke stretched west to east from British Columbia to south Quebec just north of Vermont, as far north as central Hudson's Bay, and as far south as the Central Plains where it has been mixing with the dense smoke from the southern California wildfires. Several areas of moderately dense to very dense smoke were present, mostly along and north of the US/Canadian border with one of the largeest areas of very dense smoke northwest of Lake Superior and another over southern Alberta/southern Saskatchewan. Southern California to Colorado/Central to Northern and Southern Plains: Remnant smoke continued to be pulled northeastward across the Southwestern US by the strong upper low in place across Montana. The smoke spread out as it reached eastern Colorado wrapping northward into the upper low and also southeastward/southward over the Southern Plains. Most of this smoke has originated from the large wildfires burning in Southern California though other fires, such as those in Utah/northwest Colorado yesterday, have contributed some smoke as well. Moderately dense to very dense smoke extended northeastward from the UT/NV border across Colorado and then southeastward over Kansas and Oklahoma before filtering out across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley. Another expansive area of moderately dense to very dense smoke existed this evening from western Kansas northward to the US/Canadian border in the vicinity of northeast Montana. Again this evening, the Station Fire in southern California has produced an enormous amount of fresh and very dense smoke, which has been spreading out to the north and west this evening. Pacific Northwest: By this evening, a much larger area of remnant smoke became apparent over Washington, Oregon, and northern Idaho. Thin smoke covered most of these states while moderately dense smoke was observed creeping eastward from the western side of the Cascades into central Washington and central Oregon. Some of this smoke is from the active fires burning mostly in Oregon over the past few days but likely remnant smoke from the British Columbia fires has also lingered over the region. -Sheffler 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