DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 30, 2012
Western US/Central Canada: A number of large wildfires scattered across the region from northern California to southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming were producing massive quantities of moderately dense to very thick smoke. The thickest smoke was located over northern California, central Idaho, western and southern Montana, and northern Wyoming. Additional moderately dense to thick smoke also spread farther to the northeast into Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces in Central Canada. Central and Eastern US/Central to Southeastern Canada: A very large area of thin to moderately dense smoke, also primarily from the large wildfires in the Western US, was visible moving to the east and southeast across south central to southeastern Canada, and much of the Central US extending eastward to at least as far as the Appalachians. Within this region, a few concentrated areas of seasonal fires were emitting lower level localized smoke plumes. These areas of more localized smaller smoke plumes included the Middle Mississippi Valley from southeastern Missouri to eastern Arkansas, central and southern Kansas, and eastern North Dakota/northwestern Minnesota. 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