Saturday, August 27, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1745Z August 27, 2011

Central Plains/Texas/Mid-West/Lower Mississippi Valley/Gulf Coast:
A very large area of mostly light, remnant smoke could be seen extending
from near western Nebraska southward to central and eastern Texas and
then eastward through the lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast states
and into the upper-mid-west. This continues to be remnant from the large
and numerous fires that have continued to burn out west through Montana,
Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon over the past several days. Near the Gulf coast
states and through the northern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, not only
is this is an area of remnant smoke from the fires out west, but also
fires that have been burning through the lower-Mississippi Valley and
especially a large fire burning just south of Lake Pontchartrain that
has been producing quite a bit of smoke. Also, there could be some thin
aerosols mixing in as well as some possible Saharan dust through portions
of the northern Gulf of Mexico and into northern Florida.


Montana/Wyoming/Western Dakotas:
An area of light smoke could be seen in this morning's satellite imagery
moving eastward through southern/central Montana and into northeast
Wyoming and the western portion of the Dakotas. Another area of thin
smoke could be seen through northwestern Montana. This is all left-over
and some new smoke from the large fires that have been burning through
western Montana and northern Wyoming.

Western Oregon:
An area of elongated light with some moderately dense smoke could
be seen moving towards the northwest through portions of central and
western Oregon this morning. This is mostly likely remnant smoke from
the numerous fires that were burning yesterday in that region with some
newer smoke from one fire in particular burning just south of Mount Hood
National Forest.


Belge

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

 


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.