Sunday, August 11, 2013

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z August 12, 2013

CURRENTLY:

Northern US:
Remnant smoke from wildfires in Idaho has spread out with an east-west
orientation, now draped from Montana to Indiana. Smoke is moderate to
thick in density.

Canada:
Wildfires in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories
continued to produce large amounts of smoke today. An area of
remnant smoke was visible across the Northwest Territories and
Nunavut. Smoke appeared moderate to thick in density and was slow
moving/swirling. Another area of remnant smoke moderate to thick in
density was dropping southward from Manitoba into North Dakota and
Minnesota.

LP

EARLIER TODAY:

Ohio Valley:
Remnant thin smoke from Idaho fires that has drifted East from midweek
is trapped by airmass near a shortwave trof situated over SW Ohio at
this time.  The smoke takes on a typical cyclone shape with a “warm
front look with wrapping back behind the cyclone from N Indiana across N
OH into central PA... a draping cold front feature extends SW from S OH,
across S IN, W KY into S MO.  This area is moving east.

Great Lakes/Northern Great Plains:
Moderate to dense smoke from the last few days out of ID fires continues
to move due east covering S SD, S MN, N IA, S WI, Central Lake MI
before bending a bit more NE across western Georgian Bay into Ontario.
Thin smoke connects this area with Ohio Valley area across N IL and with
the Northern Rockies area across NW SD.

Northern US Rockies/S BC/S Alberta:
Convectively dense smoke from last night's ID Pony, Elk, Mccan, and Beaver
Creek Wildfire Complexes can be seen covering ext NE WA, the northern
tip of ID, ext SE BC and much of western MT (west of 110W).  Thin to
moderately dense smoke surrounds this area and extends south across all
of ID, SE MT, NW WY, all of S BC up to 55N  and S Alberta south of 55N
as well.  With a deep cyclone off the US NW coast, this smoke is moving N
across ID, NW across BC and N WA, and SE across Alberta and W MT (eastward
in S MT and NW WY).   Moderate to dense smoke covers the Central Snake
River Valley in ID likely near the surface leading to visibility issues.

North Atlantic, Newfoundland, US Mid-Atlantic seaboard:
Thin smoke from Canadian and ID fires over the past week extend along the
cold from from South of Greenland, across the eastern tip of Newfoundland
then arcing back W from 45N55W to around the Delmarva seaboard around 75W
(though not directly overland).  This is all moving NE at the northern
portion of the band, and E along the center and southern extents.

Canada:
Due to the numerous very large fire complexes across the Yukon and
NW Territories, N Alberta, N Saskatchewan, and NW Manitoba... much of
Northern and Central Canada area at least covered with thin smoke... some
moderate smoke can be seen on the north side of the main upper low in
the N Hudson Bay, but the bulk of very dense smoke is oriented in the
main westerly belt that divides the upper low and the ridging between
the upper low off the US NW coast.  A 100km wide swath of this very
dense smoke extends from far E Quebec, across Central Ontario (Across
Thunder Bay/N tip of Lake Superior) across the large Manitoban lakes to
Reindeer Lake and Lake Athabasca.   Further north another dense area
has been pulled north across the NW Nunavut/NW Territory boarder into
the Northwest Passages/Victoria Island.  Moderately dense smoke covers
other portions of the Yukon Territory near their sources.

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.