DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 1, 2010
Western/Central Canada/Great Lakes region: Moderate to dense smoke remained covered over most 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 eastward. By tonight, remnant smoke had managed to make its' way across Hudson Bay to the western shore of northwest Quebec and had seeped southward to cover parts of northern Minnesota and most of Lake Superior. A piece of thin to moderately dense smoke that probably had been pulled northward into the Arctic several days ago was seen drifting back to the west over north central Nunavut. Northeast Canada: Patches of thin smoke were dissipating this evening over the Davis Strait and becoming indistinguishable among other aerosols seen wrapping into an Arctic system. 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 continued to move eastward off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes and away from Nova Scotia. Central Plains: A band of thin smoke was seen along a frontal boundary over northeast Arkansas, western Kentucky, southern Missouri, and northeast Oklahoma mixed with other aerosols creating very hazy conditions. The remnant smoke that is beginning to mix is likely from yesterday's agricultural fires in Kansas and Oklahoma. Alaska: An area of thin smoke was seen over northeast Alaska earlier this morning, which may have either drifted northwest from the fires in the Yukon or possibly may have drifted across the Arctic from large fires in Siberia, given that fire activity has been fairly minimal in Alaska recently. However, very warm temperatures in much of the state today sparked and fanned numerous fires north of Fairbanks producing small patches of moderate density smoke. 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