DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1900Z August 1, 2012
Western Canada: Several areas of detached smoke is seen over portions of the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. This smoke was generally thin in density except for small patches of moderately dense smoke east and west of Great Slave Lake and moderately dense smoke extending northwest and southeast across eastern Great Bear Lake. This smoke comes mostly from two clusters of fires; one southeast of Great Bear Lake and the other in southwestern Northwest Territories, northwest Alberta, and northeast British Columbia. Western US: Several wildfires burning in parts of California, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana were producing smoke this morning. Remnant smoke from these fires was seen across northern Idaho and south central Montana to extreme southern Manitoba. North Central US/South Central to Eastern Canada: A large area of remnant smoke covers much of the Midwest and Great Lakes region of the US this morning, extending as far southeast as Tennessee/Kentucky/West Virginia and is being pulled northeastward across southern Ontario to just east of James Bay by a strong upper low. Additional remnant smoke is seen over far southeast Quebec, southeast Labrador, and western Newfoundland. This smoke is thought to be from a mix of sources that mostly includes the fires in northwest Canada and the western US. Sheffler 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