Tuesday, July 27, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z July 28, 2010

Currently:

Northwest Territories/Nunavut/Saskatchewan/Manitoba region:
Smoke continues to generate out of the numerous wildfires burning across
Saskatchewan and southeast Northwest Territory.  Currently the moderately
dense to dense smoke has moved farther south reaching parts of southern
Canada and the border to the US (Montana/North Dakota).

California/Nevada:
A fire in south central Kern county is producing moderately dense to
dense smoke moving north into eastern Tulare and western Inyo counties
in central California.  The smoke is combining with smoke from another
wildfire in northern Kern/southern Tulare county.  The smoke from this
wildfire is very dense and moving across a large section of eastern
California/west central Nevada. Lighter smoke is moving farther north
into California and Nevada.

Another fire burning in Lassen county in northeastern California is
emitting light smoke toward the north into Modoc county.

Southeast British Columbia:
A wildfire (around 50.9N/122.3W) is producing an area of moderately
dense to dense smoke moving north across central British Columbia.
Lighter smoke has fanned out east of the heavier smoke.

Earlier Today:

Northwest Territories/Nunavut/Saskatchewan/Manitoba region:
The wildfires burning across Saskatchewan and areas of southeast Northwest
Territories continues to produce heavy smoke with residual smoke across
many different regions in Canada.  An area of moderately dense to dense
smoke lies WNW to ESE across SW Nunavut north into Victoria Strait, Gulf
of Boothia and east into Foxe Basin.  Light smoke spreads farther north
into southern parts of the Queen Elizabeth Islands and as far east as
the Hudson Bay.  Another area of moderately dense to dense smoke extends
across parts of central Saskatchewan/Alberta and into northern Manitoba.
Lighter smoke spreads as far west as northeastern British Columbia and
north into sections of southern Northwest Territories and south into
southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Southern Yukon/British Columbia/Northwest Territory:
A wildfire burning for days continues to produce moderately dense to
dense smoke northwest toward the Yukon.  Residual light to moderately
dense smoke from yesterday's burning has spread into southeast regions
of the Yukon and southwest sections of the Northwest Territories.

J Kibler


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.