DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 22, 2010
Southwestern Canada to Eastern Canada/Northeastern US/Middle Atlantic States/ Western Atlantic/Canadian Maritimes/Labrador Sea: Again, the situation with smoke was somewhat similar to what was described in the narrative earlier today. Widespread cloudiness covers a good portion of British Columbia and Alberta provinces which did hinder fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. However, smoke still could be seen from the ongoing large fires in British Columbia Province of southwestern Canada covering a very large area with thin density smoke extending from British Columbia eastward over much of south central Canada to southeastern Canada. Some of the leading edge of the thinner smoke had also moved over a portion of the northern tier of the US, especially over the region from northeastern Montana to the western Great Lakes region and southward from there to the Central Plains. Thinner smoke also extended eastward and southeastward from the Great Lakes region to off the Northeast and Middle Atlantic coast, but cloudiness across a good portion of the region prevented some details concerning the full extent of the smoke. Embedded moderately dense to dense smoke extended from British Columbia eastward to Ontario Province. Some of the thin to moderately dense smoke also has spread northeastward around an area of low pressure into central Canada around Hudson Bay. An additional rather large area of thin density smoke was visible over portions of the Canadian Maritimes and the Labrador Sea to near Greenland. Farther to the west, cloudiness still covers the region where large fires existed recently over northern Saskatchewan Province of west central Canada. Some of the smoke in areas of central to eastern Canada, the Canadian Maritimes, and portions of the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the US may be composed at least partly of smoke from the Saskatchewan fires, though it is believed to be mostly composed of smoke from the British Columbia fires. Wyoming/The Dakotas/Southeastern Montana: A patch of thin leftover smoke could still be seen this evening moving to the northeast over eastern Wyoming and into southeastern Montana and the western Dakotas. This smoke was likely leftover from last evening's larger fires over western Wyoming as well as a very large one over southern Idaho near the Nevada border. 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