DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 09, 2012
Western and Central US: A very large area of thin density smoke from numerous wildfires burning across portions of the Western US extended from northern California to southwestern Canada and southeastward from there over the Rockies as well as the Central and Southern Plains. Moderately dense to thick smoke covered northeastern California, northern Nevada, eastern Oregon, northern Utah, and much of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The moderately dense smoke also moved over southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan in Canada. Canada/North Central US: Numerous wildfires burning from northwestern Canada to south central Canada were responsible for an extensive mass of thin density smoke which covered a huge part of Canada as well as some of the northern tier of the US from North Dakota to the western Great Lakes region. Moderately dense smoke was seen centered primarily over Hudson Bay. Thicker smoke was generally confined to areas closer to the actual fires. Some cloudiness in the vicinity of some of the fires did limit smoke detection in satellite imagery to a certain extent. Northwestern US/Southwestern Canada: Thin to moderately dense smoke which is believed to have originated from ongoing fires in Siberia was visible moving from the Pacific inland over portions of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia in southwestern Canada. Gulf of Mexico/Florida: Dust which has moved across the Atlantic from the Saharan Desert could be seen across a good portion of the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Florida Peninsula and just offshore of Georgia and South Carolina. Alaska: Smoke from the Siberian fires was also visible moving to the east and southeast over the Bering Sea and into western and northwestern Alaska. Northwestern Canada: Several fires continue to burn over northern British Columbia, and southern parts of the Yukon and Northwest Territories. However, cloudiness in the region significantly limited smoke detection in satellite imagery. 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