DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 16, 2010
Southwestern Canada/Northwestern US: Numerous significant fires continued to burn across northern as well as south central British Columbia resulting in a very large mass of moderately dense to dense smoke which covered a good portion of British Columbia and Alberta provinces of western Canada. Some of the smoke was moving in a southerly and southeasterly direction and had entered the north central and northeastern portions of Montana just prior to sunset. Farther to the west, some of the smoke had also moved southward into extreme northwestern Washington state as well as over the Pacific off the coast of southwestern Canada, Washington, and Oregon. Alaska: Several fires over the east central portions of Alaska were emitting dense smoke which moved in a westerly and northwesterly direction during the day. West Central Canada: Fires flared up again this afternoon across the northern part of Saskatchewan Province and over the Northwest Territories just north of Lake Athabasca and southeast of the Great Slave Lake. The moderately dense to dense smoke plumes were moving mainly to the south. 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