DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1745Z July 12, 2012
Canada: Numerous large wildfires continue to burn across northern Alberta/Northwest Territories allowing for copious amounts of smoke to spread eastward across the majority of Canada. The extent of the thin-density smoke reaches as far east as Quebec/western New Brunswick. There are also two distinct thick density ribbons of smoke that are located mainly in northern Alberta/Saskatchewan. The first ribbon is thinning out a bit and stretching southward towards the US. The second ribbon of thick density smoke seems to be attached to one of the large wildfires in Alberta but continues to expand and travel east/northeastward. A fairly large area of medium-density smoke was also present this morning, mainly across Alberta/Saskatchewan, intermixed with various cloud features. Majority of the US: A broad area of thin-density smoke was present this morning across much of the US extending from California eastward across the central US and then northeastward across Missouri/Illinois/Indiana and the northern Great Lakes. Some of the smoke in California could possibly be from fires burning in Siberia, while most of the smoke is likely from the wildfires burning in California/Oregon/Idaho. Alaska: A ring of mainly medium-density smoke was visible across northern British Columbia, wrapped around a low pressure system, moving eastward across northern Alberta. Thin-density smoke extended northward from the low into eastern Alaska. This smoke could possibly be a combination of smoke from Siberian fires as well as from the multiple wildfires in Alberta. -Vogt 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