DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z August 6, 2013
Smoke: US West Coast: An area of light to moderate density smoke is visible stretching from NW California, Oregon, SE Washington, Idaho, and into western Montana. This smoke originates from the Salmon River and Butler wildfires in NW California and the numerous wildfires taking place in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Canada: A large area of light to heavy dense smoke continues to cover a significant portion of north-central Canada this morning. Area of light smoke extends across northwest Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan/Alberta, eastern two-thirds of the Northwest Territories and much of western Nunavut provinces. Numerous wildfires continue to burn producing significant smoke plumes across this region. Aerosols: Gulf of Mexico: An area of unknown aerosols is visible swirling around the Gulf of Mexico states, most notably SE Texas and SW Louisiana. Some of the aerosols are moving north over land towards Oklahoma. Due to the cloud cover present in the area, it is difficult to quantify the presence of the aerosols in the eastern Gulf. It is unknown if the area is related to the Saharan dust that was blowing to the south in the Caribbean or remnant smoke over the last few days. Oegerle 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