Wednesday, July 4, 2012

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

 


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.