DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1345Z July 31, 2012
Canada: Numerous large fires across the NW Territories, N Alberta, N Saskatchewan, the Northern lake region of Manitoba and the NW wilderness of Ontario continued to produce smoke that covers nearly all of Canada and drops into the northern US and Great Lakes region as well. The smoke is quite dense from Great Bear to Great Slave Lake across Reindeer Lake, northern Manitoba and NW Ontario. Though still moderate in density through a weak wave/cyclone along the Ontario/Quebec provincial line... it picks up in density again across E Quebec and Labrador before heading across the N Atlantic south of Greenland. Far NW Canada: Some of the smoke (mostly from the NW Territory fires) as begun to shear NW and N under SEly flow moving across W NW Territories and the Yukon Territory and eventually due north into the Arctic Ocean. Montana/S Saskatchewan/Dakotas/Minnesota: Last night's output from the Halstead fire in central ID with some contribution from the Rapid Creek and Prisoner Lake in W MT has drifted due E and ENE and is now a large dense area across the eastern half of MT and the southern quarter of Saskatchewan. A line of convection separates the very dense from the moderately dense smoke dropping SE across SE ND into central MN and far west central WI... this smoke is nearly all from the Rapid Creek Complex. Nebraska/Iowa: Remnant moderately dense smoke from two nights ago (Sunday) emitted by the Dallas Canyon fire continues a slow drift to the E then SE across NE Nebraska into central IA...where it is merging with thin smoke from the Rapid Creek Complex described above. Central Mississippi and Lower Tennessee River Valleys: Remnant thin smoke from the Rapid Creek and Canadian fires has dropped SSE on the western periphery of the ridge covers a large portion of IL, E MO, W KY and TN before accelerating into the back side of a large MCS in AL. The smoke looks particularly dense in GOES-West imagery, but this is likely due to the high sun angle and high reflectivity over that smoke layer back to the satellite...as it is difficult to see in GOES-East VIS. Texas/Oklahoma: Moderately dense mid to upper level smoke is moving SSW centered across the Red River particularly over SW OK, N TX boarder region, though thinner smoke can be seen covering all of OK (minus panhandle), NE TX into SW AR and NW LA. This is remnant smoke from ID/MT/WY fires emitted over late last week...that has been trapped under a well defined anti-cyclone/ridge in the Southern Plains. Dust: Saharan dust across SE Florida continues to thin out and is very light across the peninsula around Sarasota to Ft. Myers and into the SE Gulf of Mexico. On the east coast... the sand is even thinner in density and can be approximated from Melbourne to Ft. Pierce. Gallina 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