DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z September 11, 2012
Northern and Western US/Southern Canada: Large wildfires in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming continued to emit moderately dense to very dense smoke across the western US. In addition, several large grass fires were burning out of control this afternoon and evening across southern Alberta as very strong winds fueled the flames and copious amounts of dense smoke. The most dense areas of smoke were seen over northern Idaho/western Montana/central Oregon but moderate to thin density smoke extends through most of the northwestern/north central US into south central/central Canada. The smoke extends as far northward into Canada as southeast Northwest Territories and as far east as James Bay/western Quebec/southeast Ontario/and the Ohio Valley. Blowing Dust: With strong winds over the Pacific Northwest and southern Alberta/Saskatchewan this evening from a storm system lifting into Canada, areas of blowing or elevated dust were observed in some locations. These included a plume seen over southeast Idaho, plumes of dust seen over south central Oregon, dust over southeast Washington, and blowing dust over north central and northeast Montana/south Alberta/and south Saskatchewan. Much of this dust was being mixed with the expansive areas of smoke. Gulf of Mexico: A remnant aerosol of unknown origin and composition was seen along an old frontal boundary over the central Gulf of Mexico. It could be smoke from several days ago from fires along the Mississippi River Valley. Aleutians: A large upper low over the Bering Sea could be seen pulling an unknown aerosol from Asia southeastward across the western Aleutians. Sheffler 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