DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z September 3, 2012
Northern California: Several wildfires continue to burn in northern California resulting in locally thick smoke. Moderately dense smoke covers even more territory, extending southward into the Sacramento Valley of central California. Idaho/Montana/Northern Wyoming/The Dakotas: Numerous wildfires scattered around central Idaho into western Montana were emitting moderately dense to thick smoke which moved mainly in an easterly direction during the day. The moderately dense smoke stretched eastward across southern Montana and combined with smoke from fires over northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana spreading out across portions of the Dakotas. Very large area Extending from Northern California to Central Canada, the Great Lakes Region, the Central Plains, and the Lower Mississippi Valley: In addition to the thicker smoke closer to the active fires described in the paragraphs above, a huge area of thin to moderately dense smoke also from the western US fires stretched from off the California coast eastward over the northern Rockies to the Northern Plains and Great Lakes Region. The smoke then was pulled in 2 different directions around weather systems. It spread northward from the northern US into south central Canada and wrapped northwestward and eventually south and southeastward around low pressure located over Saskatchewan. Over the US, the smoke was pulled southward in a narrow ribbon over the central Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley around the back side of low pressure located over Illinois. JS Earlier this morning... Western Atlantic Ocean: An area of light smoke was pooled along and ahead of a frontal boundary off the mid Atlantic coast east of the Delmarva. A narrow area of smoke was also east of Cape Canaveral Florida and extending further east into the Atlantic. 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