DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z July 19, 2013
US Mid-Atlantic/New England and coastal waters: A plume of pollutants and haze with mixed smoke can be seen from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to Cape Cod extending eastward to about 40N65W then with a bit more northeasterly motion toward the Canadian Maritime Waters off Cape Race. The smoke was trapped under the upper ridge from emissions from fires in Manitoba/Saskatchewan from last weekend and earlier. Pollutants/haze as been concentrating due to the flow being generally trapped and increased heat/humidity making it easier to detect in visible imagery. E Canada: Far Eastern Quebec fires are once again producing very dense smoke but thin to moderately dense smoke from yesterday could be tracked over Newfoundland and southward moving due east merging with the discussed pollutants/light smoke described above to the SE of Cape Race. A narrow ribbon of moderately dense smoke likely from fires in N Ontario OR N Manitoba from the last few days appears to be concentrated along a jet streak axis that stretches from Quebec City across the SE Quebec across the N tip of New Brunswick into the Gulf of St. Lawrence across Les Iles-de-la-Madeleine to the N tip of Nova Scotia to Cape Race. This plume is about 20-40km wide. US Northern Great Plains: Remnant thin smoke from yesterday's Idaho fire emissions can be seen moving E and SE from North-central MN, across the the ND/SD boarder into W SD, S MT and N WY around the Big Horn Mtn Range. Thin smoke across NE MT and N ND is drifting S and is described below in SW Canada section. SW Canada: A large area of moderately dense to dense smoke is moving S across Central BC from the E Queen Charolette Sound around Aristazabal and Princess Royal Islands to the point where the BC/Alberta boundary no longer follows 120W north of McBride, BC. Due to different flow regimes on each side of the spine of the Rockies the dense smoke on the Eastern Side is moving SE and covers nearly all of Alberta and Saskatchewan south of 55N, but north of 50N; thin smoke continues southward from there into NW MT and N ND. An arm of moderately dense smoke can be seen across the large Manitoban lakes where it becomes too cloud covered to be seen. This smoke originates from the large output of smoke a few days back across the Yukon territory with some contributions from AK and NW Territory fires. California (Norte y Baja): Large area of thin smoke from the Mountain fire in S California can be seen covering all of California from Lake Tahoe to Monterey Bay southward including portions of W and S NV. Some smoke as being pulled south across Baja California and coastal Pacific waters and covers even past the Baja Norte and Baja state boarder; at that point influence of the large upper low over N Sonora pulls the smoke eastward across the Sea of Cortez into Southern Sonora. 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