DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z August 26, 2013
Smoke: From the Western US wildfires: The majority of smoke detected this evening is associated with the large wildfires in California and Idaho. A large swath extends from the fires to the northeast covering northeast California and northwest Nevada. This area them mergers with smoke from additional fires in Idaho and covers most of Idaho and Montana. It then extends to the east and fans out, covering much of the southern Canadian Plains and passes south of James Bay and into southern Quebec and the Canadian maritimes. The smoke area also covers the northern and central US Plains into northern and western Texas, the Great Lakes states, the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and New England and the mid Atlantic. Most of the smoke from the Plains eastward is light density and elevated but there is a large area of moderate to dense smoke from Nevada into Idaho and Montana and then extended east along the US/Canadian border into the northern Great Lakes. The edge of the smoke from the Plains eastward is very difficult to accurately determine, especially as it mixes with haze east of the Mississippi. Dust: An area of blowing dust generated from very strong thunderstorm outflows was seen over southern California. The dust was seen originating from near Barstow in San Bernardino county and expanding in an arc to the west nearly reaching China Lake and Edwards by sunset. Ruminski 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