DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 29, 2013
Western US to Northern and Central Plains; A huge area of thin density smoke stretches from the Western US across the Northern and Central Rockies to at least as far east as the Northern and Central Plains. Earlier this morning, some very thin smoke was visible farther to the east over portions of the Great Lakes Region and Ohio Valley, but it could not be seen in satellite imagery later in the day possibly because of cloudiness in this area. The thin density smoke over the Northern Plains and farther to the east is likely due to a mix of smoke from a number of larger fires in the Western US and fires over central Canada. For spots west of the Northern Plains, the smoke is believed to be exclusively from the Western US fires. Closer to the Western US fires, an area of moderately dense to thick smoke covered portions of northern and central California, Oregon, eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Canada: A very large mass of thin density smoke stretched over a good portion of the area from central Canada to northeastern Canada and even farther to the east over the Atlantic Ocean. This smoke was due to a few wildfires scattered over eastern Quebec, southern Newfoundland, northern Ontario, and especially northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan. Moderately dense smoke from the Manitoba and Saskatchewan fires spread in a northeasterly direction over north central Canada and eastward across northeastern Canada and out over Baffin Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Very thick smoke was visible to the north and northeast of the Manitoba and Saskatchewan fires over the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories and western Hudson Bay. Farther to the south, some of the thin density smoke over south central Canada was likely composed of smoke from the Canadian fires and smoke from the Western US fires. JS 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