DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z August 24, 2013
Western US: An area of thick smoke stretched from central California to Montana and the southern portion of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This dense smoke was due mainly to large fires in the Sierras of central California as well as fires in south central Idaho. The Rim Fire in central California close to Yosemite National Park was emitting a particularly large dense smoke plume which covered much of east central California, northern Nevada, and southern Idaho. Moderately dense to thick smoke was also seen near fires in southwestern Oregon and northwestern California. Some cloudiness across portions of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana interfered with some information concerning smoke extent and density. Western US all the way to the Mid Atlantic region and out over the Atlantic: A huge area of thin to moderately dense smoke from the Western US fires was visible extending from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California across much of the North Central and Central US to the Mid Atlantic region and offshore over the Atlantic. Canada: Mainly thin density smoke from fires in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario with some contribution from the Western US fires was seen moving to the east and northeast across a good portion of south central and central Canada. Locally moderately dense to thick smoke was visible closer to some of the Canadian 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