DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1930Z July 31, 2010

Western/Central Canada:
Moderate to dense smoke covered an expansive area of Canada today
from western Nunavut south to northwest Minnesota/Lake Superior and
from southeast Yukon Territory/British Columbia eastward to Hudson
Bay/southwestern Quebec. The large area of smoke originated from three
areas of concentrated fire activity which have been burning for several
days now; northern Saskatchewan and the southeastern portions of the
Northwest Territories, northwestern British Columbia and the southern
Yukon Territory, and south central British Columbia. An upper low over
the Alberta/Saskatchewan border was wrapping moderately dense smoke
from the British Columbia/southeast Yukon Territory fires southeastward
and eastward.

Northeast Canada:
Two small patches of thin, wispy smoke were seen mixing with other
unknown aerosols between northeastern Canada and Greenland over the

Nova Scotia:
A band of aerosols believed to be remnant smoke transported from the
Canada fires southeastward across the Great Lakes during the past two
days was seen east of Maine this morning and over parts of Nova Scotia
along a frontal boundary.

Central Plains:
Thin smoke was seen along a frontal boundary over the central US states
of Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas with two other small patches of thin
remnant smoke over northern Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas. This smoke
likely came from the numerous agricultural fires in Kansas and Oklahoma
yesterday.

Sheffler

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.