DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0045Z September 1, 2012
Great Lakes to Atlantic Seaboard: A moderately thick band of remnant smoke from western fires in ID/CA/MT/OR is laid out E-W along a digging trof across E WI, through MI, S Ontario across New England. This smoke is likely from mid-week.... further south thin to moderately dense smoke can be seen covering the eastern seaboard from Long Island to Hilton Head Island and out across the Sargasso Sea. This smoke has an anticyclonic twist to it as it moves south-south east and is most dense along the VA/NC boarder. Nebraska: Large prairie fires in the White River basin near Chadron, NE are producing moderate to dense smoke that is moving north into SD and contributing to the larger area of smoke described below. US Northwest, Northern Rockies, Southern Canadian Prairies and North Dakota: Large fire complexes in N CA, OR and ID continue to pump out copious amounts of moderate to dense smoke that is generally moving NE across CA/OR, N ID, SE Alberta, S Saskatchewan, and S Manitoba. Clouds obscure detection across much of MT and ND but breaks in the clouds clearly denote the milky appearance consistent with smoke. A thin fliament (maybe 20-30 km wide moving SE across the arrowhead of MN into the UP of MI indicates the leading edge of the smoke output of the latter portion of this week. Interestingly, thin smoke that moved slightly W across the coastal mountains of OR and CA has become trapped in the lower levels of the atmosphere (likely near the sfc under the boundary layer)... and is now sinking southward along the southern coast of OR and N CA to Arena Point and Northwest Cape (Sonoma county). 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