DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 2, 2011
South Central and Southeastern Canada/Northeastern US: Wildfires in western Ontario and extreme eastern Manitoba were emitting plumes of moderately dense to thick smoke which initially moved to the southeast, before a change in wind direction began to blow the smoke closer to the fires to the north during the late afternoon and early evening. However, smoke from these fires farther to the southeast continued to move in a southeasterly direction over southern Ontario and across the northern Great Lakes. A patch of moderately dense to possibly even locally dense smoke reached as far as Lake Ontario and northern New York state just prior to sunset. The smoke will likely move across a good portion of the Northeastern US overnight. Central and Eastern US: Once again, a large mass of aerosol was visible trapped under the huge upper level ridge across a good portion of the Central and Eastern US from the Plains to the Middle Atlantic region. A few fires with relatively small smoke plumes were analyzed during the day, especially across the south central US, but smoke is likely not a large contributor to the aerosol. California: Significant cloudiness was present around the Lion Fire in interior south central California which prevented any smoke detection in satellite imagery during the day. Northwestern US/Southwestern Canada: Some type of aerosol was present aloft across the far Northwestern US (northern Washington State) and Southwestern Canada, but was only visible just before sunset with the favorable low sun angle in GOES-East imagery. Smoke from the fires burning in Siberia has occasionally made its way across the north Pacific into this region, but in this case it is not known if smoke is present. JS Earlier this Morning... Mid-Atlantic: An area of very thin smoke was moving over southern Ohio this morning and is now entering southwestern Virginia. The source for this area of smoke was likely the fire over Fremont County in Wyoming. Northwest Territories: Remnant light/moderate smoke from wildfires over the Northwest Territories could be seen this morning moving westward over Great Bear Lake. Liddick 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