Sunday, August 22, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 22, 2010

Central/Eastern Canada and Great Lakes:
Residual smoke, mainly from the fires in British Columbia the past several
days, was seen covering much of central and eastern Canada. However,
the actual areal extent is somewhat questionable due to a large area of
cloudiness covering much of the Canadian prairie provinces. The smoke
appears to cover most of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and western
Ontario, the southern half of Hudson Bay and western Quebec. The smoke
dips south over the western Great Lakes and upper Mississippi Valley,
from Minnesota into northern Illinois and Indiana. Smoke density is
difficult to assess due to the clouds. An elongated area of moderate
to dense smoke was seen over southwest Ontario across the Arrowhead of
Minnesota and the upper peninsula of Michigan. Other small patches of
moderate smoke were over western Quebec.

Nunavut:
A patch of residual light smoke has become embedded in a cyclonic
circulation over Nunavut along the northwest shore of Hudson Bay.

Canadian Maritimes:
An area of light to moderately dense smoke was over much of mainland
Labrador and extending into the Labrador Sea reaching to just off the
southwest coast of Greenland.

Idaho:
A massive fire erupted overnight in southwest Idaho. Clouds were covering
the region at daylight, hindering smoke detection but it appears that
some smoke is mixed in with the clouds and lifting to the northeast into
extreme southwest Montana.

Oregon/northern California:
A fire over southwest Oregon had a smoke plume drifting to the southwest
along and just off the coast of Del Norte and Humboldt counties in
California.

Ruminski


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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.