DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0045Z September 2, 2012
Northern Canada: A very narrow ribbon (likely about 25-40km wide) extends a long way across N Canada... from a filament bending SW across the NE corner of BC under the influence of a nearly stationary cyclone over Alberta... across the southern most kms of the NW Territory into S Nunavut before dipping SE then S across the Manitoba coastline of Hudson Bay into Northern Ontario where it fans out a bit in a subtle shortwave trof entering James Bay. This smoke is higher level output from the MT/ID/CA fires from a few days ago... that outran the lower level smoke described below Montana/Saskatchewan: Moderate to dense smoke from last night's output of the MT/ID fires covers the central and NE portions of MT moving NE then due N under very strong southerly winds across Saskatchewan before becoming diffluent over N Saskatchewan bending NW across N Alberta and NE across N Manitoba. This smoke is quickly moving closer to the aforementioned ribbon of smoke an may not be differentiated on the HMS graphic as distinct areas... please see the GIS graphic or KML file for more distinct analysis of each plume. State of Jefferson(S OR/N CA), ID and W Montana: Very strong westerly dry winds on the south side of the strong Alberta cyclone have significantly enhanced the fires...particularly over ID/MT where fires are now emitting dense smoke that is moving due west. Further south, in N CA, winds are a bit lighter but a very large area of modeartely dense smoke from yesterday and today's output is socked into valleys all throughout N CA, S OR into SW ID. Some smoke from the North Pass fire is being blown due W along the coast and is then dropping due south along the coastline of CA toward Arena Point again tonight. Pacific Northwest to western Great Lakes: A broad area of mostly light density smoke from the numerous wildfires burning in California and Idaho was seen stretching from northern California and southeast Oregon across Idaho and Montana then arcing northward into eastern Alberta, and Saskatchewan and then curling back to the southeast over Manitoba and southwest Ontario into Minnesota, Wisconsin and Lake Superior and Iowa. Patchy small areas of moderately dense smoke were seen in the immediate vicinity of the fires in Idaho and northern California. A larger area of moderately dense smoke was seen around Lake Winnipeg. Western Great Lakes and Missouri and Mississippi River Valleys: Moderately dense smoke can be seen along the eastern periphery of a cloud shield covering much of ND/S Manitoba and N MN... this smoke is moving ESE across Lake Superior and the UP of MI however, some smoke across the Red River and Missouri River valleys are beginning to feel the affects of the remnants of Isaac and can be seen moving due S along the western edge of the cyclone across MN, N IA and eastern SD, NE and KS. Mid Atlantic and Southeast Coast eastward: Upper level outflow cirrus from remnants of Isaac is beginning to block view of the northern edge of the thin to moderately dense smoke from western US fires very early in this week/last weekend) that is moving south along the frontal boundary/upper level trof pushing off the New England and Canadian Maritime. Smoke can be seen south of a line from Central New Jersey out 40N south to 32N but an anticyclonic lobe is also drifting SSW along the Mid-Atlantic and Carolina coast as far south as 30N but does not get any closer to the GA/FL coast as 80W. 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