DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z September 27, 2009
Western and Central U.S./Southern Canada: Very dense smoke was currently being produced by fires in southwestern Oregon as well as northwestern Wyoming and western Montana. Numerous other fires emitting visible smoke in satellite imagery were scattered across the northwestern U.S. and southern British Columbia Province in southwestern Canada. For additional graphical information on these smoke plumes, please refer to the links below. Very large areas of detached thin smoke from these fires also could be seen in visible imagery late this afternoon. One of these areas covered southern Oregon, northern Nevada, northern Utah, and northern and central California. Another very large area of thin smoke extended across a good portion of southern Canada from British Columbia Province to southern Hudson Bay. The smoke also was present over the northern and central Plains as well as the central and southern Rockies, and the Southwest including a portion of southern California. In addition to all of the smoke across the western half of the country, a swath of blowing dust was observed moving to the east from a source region in central Washington. The blowing dust extended eastward into northern Idaho and western Montana. Southeastern Canada/Maine: The leftover smoke from the western U.S./southwestern Canada fires, which was visible earlier this morning extending from southeastern Quebec Province in southeastern Canada across Maine and offshore, was still visible late this afternoon moving to the east. 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