DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 5, 2012
Eastern two thirds of the US: A very large area of smoke continues to blanket much of the eastern two thirds of the country. However, it should be noted that most of this smoke area is aloft and of fairly thin density. The smoke stretches from the Rockies and Intermountain West eastward to the Atlantic seaboard. The smoke is originating from numerous large wildfires that have been burning for several days to weeks mainly in Wyoming, Montana and Utah. The most dense smoke was found over western Wyoming and into southeast Montana. Further east across South Dakota and Nebraska into Minnesota , Iowa and western Wisconsin the smoke was moderately dense with patchy areas of dense smoke. Mainly thin smoke was then seen across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley into the mid Atlantic and off the coast of Virginia/North Carolina. A broad area of clouds has spread over much of the Rockies and Intermountain region obscuring the fires and making smoke detection impossible in this area. It is possible that the smoke area extends over the Four Corners area and into southern Nevada. Pacific Northwest, southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba: A ribbon of light to moderately dense residual high level smoke has poured across the West Coast and extends from Oregon and Washington into northern Idaho and extreme northwest Montana, far southeast Alberta, southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba before curling northeastward (cyclonically) to northeast Manitoba, wrapping into a large storm system. This smoke has become entrained into the jet stream and is believed to have originated from wildfires burning in Russia's Far East. Bering Sea: A pair of high level smoke ribbons were observed arcing from northwest to southeast from extreme northeast Siberia across the Bering Sea toward the central Aleutians. This smoke is believed to be associated with wildfires burning across portions of Russia's Far East. Blowing dust: A small puff of blowing dust was noted originating from a source about 75km north of Lakeview in south central Oregon. The dust was moving to the east. There appeared to be a mix of aerosols (remnant smoke/dust/haze) over southern California and adjacent areas of northwest Mexico and the Gulf of California. Ruminski 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