DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0315Z August 3, 2010
Alaska/Northwestern Canada: Thin to locally moderately dense smoke continued to be observed across northern Alaska and the southern Arctic Ocean extending southeastward into northwestern Canada. An additional swath of moderately dense smoke was visible moving southward from the Northwest Territories toward Great Slave Lake. Some of this smoke was likely due to fires scattered across central and east central Alaska as well as northwestern Canada. However, it is possible that smoke from the fires in Russia was also being transported across the Arctic into this region. Another band of smoke which is likely from the Russian fires was seen in visible satellite imagery this evening through breaks in the clouds moving to the northeast across the Pacific between 44N170W and 49N161W. The smoke may extend even farther to the northeast, but cloudiness prevented additional information from satellite imagery. Central Canada: The numerous fires centered mainly in northern Saskatchewan Province continue to emit moderately dense to dense smoke which moved primarily to the east across central Canada to Hudson Bay. British Columbia/Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Northwestern and North Central US: Dense smoke continued to emanate from the fires in British Columbia of southwestern Canada and move in multiple directions. Some of the moderately dense to dense smoke had spread southward into Washington, Oregon, northern Idaho, and northwestern Montana as well as southern British Columbia and southern Alberta provinces. Thinner smoke from these fires had also moved southward just off the west coast and back inland over northern California, just north of the San Francisco Bay area. Additional thinner smoke had moved eastward and northeastward over the remainder of Montana and North Dakota into northwestern Minnesota as well as a good portion of Saskatchewan Province and Manitoba Province. Some of this smoke had also combined with the smoke from the Saskatchewan fires. JS 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