Monday, September 5, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1615Z September 5, 2011

Northern and Central Rockies/Plains and Northwest US:
Fire burning in Oregon, Idaho and western Montana the last couple of days
are producing a large area of light to moderately dense residual smoke
with some small pockets of heavy smoke.  The lighter smoke spreads across
eastern Washington state and moves into northern/central Idaho, a large
section of Montana (except NE portions) and into northern central Wyoming.
Smoke is just beginning to move into western sections of South Dakota
and Nebraska.  A large area of moderately dense smoke is seen across
northern Idaho, central/southern Montana and northern central Wyoming.
There are a couple of heavier pockets extending across western Montana
and southern central Montana.

Texas Panhandle/Northern Texas/Southwest Oklahoma:
A fire burning in eastern Kiowa county is producing a long narrow plume
of moderately dense smoke that extends nearly 250nm southwest into
sections of northern Texas.  The smoke is running into a long narrow
band of residual smoke (extending wnw to ese) moving south across the
Texas Panhandle and north central Texas.  The smoke is most likely from
the fires mentioned in the above section.

Eastern/Southern Texas:
Multiple fires producing smoke stretch across sections of eastern Texas.
The largest of the fires burning in Bastrop county is emitting a large
plume of mostly moderately dense to dense smoke moving south into
northeast Mexico.  The heaviest smoke extends around 100nm from source
with the moderately dense smoke extending nearly 300nm from source.

J Kibler


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.