DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0030Z July 12, 2012
Northern and Central Canada: Multiple large wildfires burning across northern Alberta and northern Manitoba were responsible for a large mass of moderately dense to thick smoke which spread to the east and fanned out encompassing a large portion of northern and central Canada. Thinner density smoke along the leading edge extended all the way to the US-Canadian border near the Great Lakes. A bit farther to the north, a stripe of thin density smoke was also visible stretching from the northern Yukon eastward to the Canadian arctic. Pacific Northwest extending into the Central US and Ohio Valley: Wildfires burning across northern California, southeastern Oregon, and southern Idaho were emitting significant smoke through the day. Moderately dense to locally dense smoke was located across north central California, southeastern Oregon, southern Idaho, and the northern half of Wyoming. Thinner density smoke extended from these fires across the northern and central US to the Ohio Valley. Alaska: A swath of thin density smoke was visible from far eastern Russia to just off the northwestern portion of Alaska over the Arctic Ocean. This smoke was believed to be from the fires burning in Siberia. JS 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