DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 19, 2010
Northwest to South Central Canada: A plume of thin remnant smoke stretched from western Victoria Island in northwest Nunavut south and southeastward across the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and western Ontario. Areas of moderately dense to very dense smoke were seen spreading southeast from the fires in north Saskatchewan southeast Northwest Territories. The remnant smoke further to the north could have come from either fires in Alaska or possibly had rotated around the upper low over Hudson Bay, originating from the British Columbia wildfires. Southwest Canada/North Central to Northwestern US/Western US Coast: Moderately dense to very dense smoke continues to pour eastward from the fires burning in south central British Columbia. The most dense areas of smoke were located just east of the fires and also across southern Alberta/southwest Saskatchewan. This smoke stretched as far as northeast Minnesota by this evening and may have stretched even further but cloud cover over Lake Superior did not allow for further smoke analysis. Remnant smoke previously from the BC fires that had filtered south and southwestward over the past few days was being pulled ashore by a strong upper low making its way into the Pacific Northwest. This brought a very large area of thin smoke inland across north California, Oregon, Washington, northwest Nevada, northern Idaho, and western Montana. Additional aerosols were seen coming ashore from the west/southwest over southern California but the composition and origin of this aerosol is unknown and it does not appear to be remnant smoke. Central Plains to Great Lakes region: Thin remnant smoke stretched from eastern Kansas northeast to Wisconsin, then east to Lake Huron, and slightly further northeast to the Ontario/Quebec province border. This smoke probably originated from the wildfires in British Columbia and was pulled east and southeastward several days ago. Southeast Canada: A small area of thin remnant smoke likely coming from the fires in British Columbia several days ago was present off the coast of southeast Quebec across the Gulf of St. Lawrence extending to the island of Newfoundland. Southeast Idaho/Northwest Wyoming/Southwest Montana: A plume of optically thick blowing dust caused by strong southwesterly surface winds was seen from just northwest of Idaho Falls, ID extending into southwest Montana and affecting the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park. 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