Wednesday, June 17, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1845Z June 17, 2010

British Columbia/Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Northwest Territories:
An expansive area of light to moderate density smoke covers a large area
from northern British Columbia and the southern Northwest Territories
east towards the western shore of Hudson Bay in Northern Manitoba.
Within this larger smoke plume a large area of very dense smoke was
detected over northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba.  The source
of the very dense smoke was the numerous wildfires located over northern
Saskatchewan.  Additional sources for the larger smoke plume were from
fires over the last week in Alaska and Yukon Territory.

Southern Ontario/Southern Quebec/Great Lakes states:
A large area of moderate density smoke was detected from the southern
shores of James Bay and covered a good portion of southern Quebec and
southeastern Ontario.  The plume was seen approaching Lake Erie and Lake
Ontario and was likely pushing into the lower peninsula of Michigan.
Sources for this smoke were the large wildfires over southern Quebec
and also over central Quebec just east of James Bay.

Arizona:
A light to moderately dense smoke plume was observed over northern Arizona
and extended into northwest New Mexico and into south central Colorado.
The source of this smoke was the wildfire analyzed over northern Arizona.

Front Range/Central and Northern Plains:
An area of what is believed to be blowing dust extended from the Front
Range area of Colorado into Nebraska and the Dakotas.

Hanna

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


 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.