Friday, September 9, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z September 10 2011

Upper Midwest:
Light smoke covers northern Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota while
a moderately dense strip of remnant smoke extends from north central
Iowa across southeast Minnesota into northwest Wisconsin.  This smoke
has multiple origins, including a wildfire burning south of Reindeer
Lake in Canada, ag burns across southern Alberta and Saskatchewan and
northwest Minnesota, and the Pagami Creek fire in the Superior National
Forest in Lake County, Minnesota.

Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies, Southern Canadian Plains:
Numerous wildfires in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon have generated
a large area of remnant smoke.  Heavy smoke covered western Idaho,
extreme eastern Washington and Oregon, and northwest Utah while moderately
dense smoke extended from northern California across much of the Pacific
Northwest into southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Light remnant smoke
was noted across north central Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Western Gulf Coast:
While numerous ag burns across the lower Mississippi Valley resulted in
generally light with isolated moderate to heavy smoke plumes and clouds,
an area of light remnant smoke from these fires as well as from numerous
wildfires in Texas covered coastal and eastern Texas and the western
half of Louisiana.

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.