Saturday, June 15, 2013

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z June 15, 2013

Smoke:
Central High Plains:
Moderately dense smoke likely from last night's emissions from of the
fires in NW CO and SE UT can be seen moving in a 'V' with the apex
directly over Denver with one arm reaching NE along I-76 in to NE near
North Platte, thinning out to less density across the Central portion
of NE (Kearney and north).   The other arm extends due E across the
high desert of E CO and along the KS/NE boarder to the same longitude
as McCook, NE.    Very thin smoke can be seen between the arms.

Alabama:
Thin smoke can be seen moving SSE across central and SE AL with sliver
entering GA, covering a 50km wide line from Selma/Montgomery area to
LaGrange/Columbus area in GA.  This smoke appears to be remnants of the
Colorado fires about 2-3 days ago.

New England and Eastern Canada:
Very large fires across the Boreal Quebec (particularly, south of
La Grande Riviere Reservior) have produced very dense smoke that has
migrated E and SE over the last day and covers the Western portions of
the St. Lawrence Seaway into New Brunswick and far E ME.  Thin smoke
surrounds out to Nova Scotia but also extending SE along and over SE New
England into the Hudson Valley Shelf/Canyon region off NJ/NY and about
50km offshore of the Delmarva.

Northern Canada/Yukon Territory:
Thin smoke drapes across Hudson Bay into W Nunavut, with
waves/amplifications across the northern NW Territories and Yukon due
to weak cyclones in the main flow.   A band of enhanced smoke can be
seen along the NW edge of a the NW-tilted ridging (associated with the
strong easterly fetch from the deep cyclone over Saskatchewan) just NW
of Great Slave Lake into far NW Alberta... this hints at the origin of
this smoke to be from the large fire complexes over N Saskatchewan and
Manitoba burning over the last few weeks.

A pocket of thin to moderately dense surface or low level smoke can
be seen across Central Yukon Territory in the Yukon River Valley with
indications.  It cannot be confirmed at this time that the source of this
smoke is the same as above, or smaller fires within the valley that have
remained too difficult to analyze or smoke that was trapped under strong
subsidence from the AK fires as the smoke descended on the eastern side
of the strong ridge over Central AK.

Gallina


THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS
OF 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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.