DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 28, 2011
Lower Mississippi Valley/Gulf Coast/Southeast US: An expansive area of mostly light density remnant smoke is present over much of the central plains and the lower Mississippi valley. While several small fires are detected in the region, the remnant smoke is predominantly days-old smoke that has originated from the larger wildfires in Idaho and Montana. An elongated area of moderate density smoke covers much of southeast Texas and the southeast Texas coast and stretches along the far northern Gulf of Mexico grazing the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and further stretches over much of the Florida panhandle, northern Florida, southern Georgia, and the far western Atlantic. 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 with a small contribution from fires in lower Mississippi valley including one particularly large wildfire burning just south of Lake Pontchartrain. Additionally there could be some thin aerosols and possible Saharan dust mixed in. Pacific Northwest: Several large wildfires in north central Oregon are collectively producing a thin density smoke plume that extends from the source of the fires northward into central Washington state. Moderate to very dense smoke is also observed in the immediate vicinity of the fires and stretches as far north as south central Washington. An elongated band of detached thin density smoke is observed in western Oregon. The likely source of this band are the numerous fires that have been burning in the area over the past several days. Montana/Wyoming/Western Dakotas: An area of light smoke with embedded patches of moderate density smoke is present across northern Idaho, much of Montana, and the western Dakotas this evening. The remnant smoke is mainly originating from several fires in northern Idaho and western Montana, and is a combination of smoke from the previous days as well as new smoke from today. The patches of moderate density smoke remain confined to those regions in northern Idaho and western Montana specifically. 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