DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH September 1, 2011
Central/Eastern US: An expansive area of smoke that was thin to moderate in density covered much of the center of the country this evening stretching as far east as the Ohio Valley in the north and Georgia in the south. Haze/mixed aerosols seen along the Gulf Coast, over the Southeast US, and along portions of the central Appalachian Mountains also mixed with the south and eastern edges of the area of remnant smoke. The smoke that is seen appears to have originated from three different source regions, 1) Lower Mississippi River Valley where numerous ag burns have been taking place 2) Texas/Oklahoma region where a large amount of fires have persisted for several days and 3) Oregon/Washington/Idaho/Montana where wildfires have been producing smoke that has drifted northeastward across the northern Plains. Northwestern US: Numerous wildfires in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana along with other fires in Washington were producing areas of moderately dense to dense smoke this evening. In addition, a moderately large area of remnant smoke probably mixed with blowing dust over southwest Idaho/northeast Nevada/northwest Utah was present from central Oregon east across southern Idaho to northwest Wyoming/central Montana. Another small patch of remnant thin smoke was seen over north Idaho. A clear plume of blowing dust/sand stretched more than 130 miles northeastward to the northwest corner of Wyoming from a point just north of Idaho Falls, ID. Arizona: Numerous fires in central Arizona along with the 3,200 acre Edison fire along the CA/AZ border were producing smoke this evening that drifted east or northeastward. An area of thin to moderate density remnant smoke either from yesterday or from earlier today was crossing the north central part of the state. Sheffler 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