DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1902Z August 08, 2010
Numerous fires across Saskatchewan continue to emit copious amounts smoke. The smoke covers a large portion of Northern North America described in areas below. Smoke from the British Colombia fires are beginning to mix into the overall smoke coverage. Central Canada: Very dense smoke covers the source regions of Saskatchewan but Sly flow is pulling the smoke NW to cover nearly all of NW Territories from Great Slave to Great Bear Lakes eastward including NW Nunavut. Moderate smoke covers the rest of Saskatchewan and thins out across MT and S Alberta...this smoke is moving NE and is likely from the BC fires over the last few days. This area is merging with Saskatchewan source smoke across all of Manitoba. S Ontario to Newfoundland: Strong westerly flow in the jet across the southern side of large polar vortex over E Hudson Bay and N Quebec is pulling the Saskatchewan smoke from a broad area of thin smoke over SW Ontario across N Lake Superior. It is in this region the smoke begins to become more dense and compacted in a narrow ribbon across E Ontario (S of the lake/woods region but N of the urban centers) across extreme SW Quebec affecting upper levels over Ottawa, Quebec City and Montreal on its way across N Maine, New Brunswick, PEI and across Newfoundland. Newfoundland and US East Coast/Maritime: Smoke across Newfoundland is a combination from the aforementioned jet but also a southern airmass that is also elongating from SW to NE from North Carolina/Virginia through the Delmarva well south of Nova Scotia but connecting up near Cape Race and E Newfoundland. This smoke is likely from output earlier in this week and last weekend. Gallina 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