Saturday August 11, 2012

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z August 12, 2012

Alaska/Yukon/Northwest Territories/Northeast British Columbia/Northern
Alberta:
A large area of light and some moderately dense remnant smoke can be seen
covering much of central Alaska and into northwestern Canada. Additional
high smoke is seen over portions of the Bering Sea. This smoke is
believed to be high level smoke from Siberia that has tracked eastward
across the Arctic and northern Pacific Ocean.

Central and Eastern Canada:
Light to moderately dense remnant smoke continues to cover much of central
Canada, including southern Alberta, most of Saskatchewan and Manitoba
and northern Ontario, eastward across Hudson Bay and into northwest
Quebec. This very large area of smoke is likely a mix of remnant smoke
from the large fires burning across northern British Columbia/Alberta
and central Saskatchewan and fires burning in the Western US along with
additional remnant smoke from Siberian wildfires.

Western US to the western Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley:
The numerous large wildfires burning across Idaho, Nevada and California
continue to spread smoke eastward across much of the western two thirds
of the country. Mainly light to moderately dense smoke was over the
northern Plains into the western Great Lakes with an extension further
south over eastern Missouri and Arkansas into southern and eastern Texas
and over the northern Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle. A
broad area of moderately dense to very dense smoke was closer to the
fires and covered most of northern California, Oregon, northern Nevada
and all but far northern Idaho. A large fire in the southern Sierras was
also producing smoke that was lifting to the northwest over the central
valley of California toward San Francisco.

Ruminski


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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.