DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z July 25, 2011
Eastern Northwest Territories: Several wildfires to the east of the Great Slave Lake continued to produce significant amounts of moderately dense to dense smoke which moved off to the northeast initially before curving more in an easterly direction. The dense smoke extended almost as far east as Hudson Bay with the moderately dense smoke extending across Hudson Bay. Thin density smoke extended as far east as northwestern Quebec. Ontario/Manitoba: At least one large wildfire in western Ontario was still visible through breaks in the clouds during the day. Only a relatively small patch of smoke was seen for a brief time early this evening moving in a northeasterly direction. Cloudiness likely did interfere with additional information on the density and extent of the smoke. Farther to the northwest, a couple of swaths of what appeared to be remnant detached smoke were visible in clear areas between breaks in the clouds moving to the west across northern Manitoba. This possible leftover smoke was likely from the fire in western Ontario which wrapped to the north and west around low pressure centered near the Manitoba-Ontario border. Alaska: Significant cloudiness across a good portion of Alaska inhibited fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. The fire burning to the south of Fairbanks was detected along with some smoke although clouds definitely prevented additional information on the density and extent of the smoke. Southern California: Clouds again interfered with fire and smoke detection, this time with the fire in San Diego County of southern California. Only a brief glimpse of some of the smoke was possible during the late afternoon and early evening. Blowing Dust...South Central Oregon: A relatively small streak of blowing dust originated from a point source in west central Lake County of south central Oregon during the afternoon and moved as far as 50-60 miles from the source to the northeast. Earlier this Morning... Central US to Mid-Atlantic States: A large area of aerosol is visible in the central US and mid Atlantic regions including much of the Ohio river valley, New England states, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The aerosol is believed to be primarily composed of haze and urban pollution, though fires in the eastern Carolinas and southeastern Georgia could be partially contributing to some of the aerosol particularly along and off the Southeast and Middle Atlantic coastal areas. The aerosol extends eastward well offshore into the western Atlantic. JS/Ramirez THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE 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 ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov