Saturday, July 12, 2014

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z July 13, 2014

SMOKE:
Canada/Northern U.S:
A tremendous number of wildfires burning across the Northwest Territories
are producing very dense smoke extending across central Northwest
Territories.  Some smoke is pushing south over eastern Alberta, and
southwest Saskatchewan with some smoke moving farther north into upper
sections of Northwest and Nunavut.  Moderately dense smoke extends across
most of Alberta, Saskatchewan, northern/central Montana, North Dakota,
northern Minnesota and east to northeast into Ontario and  St James
and southern Hudson Bay.  Lighter smoke extends into southern/central
Manitoba and northern Plains and Upper Mississippi Valley.

British Columbia/Alberta:
Numerous wildfires across central British Columbia/Alberta are producing
moderately dense to dense smoke moving east to northeast over  the region
before combining with smoke from the Northwest Territories wildfires and
then moving south with the flow over that region.  Some of these fires
are emitting very heavy smoke.

Northern California/Oregon/Washington/southern British Columbia:
Wildfires burning in Northern California and Washington State are emitting
smoke stretching into southern British Columbia and beginning to reach
other areas of smoke from fires burning across the central province.

Newfoundland/Atlantic:
Residual smoke most likely from the Northwest Territories wildfires can
be seen moving off the Newfoundland coast and farther northeast into
the Atlantic.

Dust:
An area of dust mentioned earlier today can currently been seen extending
over sections of eastern New Mexico, Texas Panhandle and possibly
farther east in Texas, most of Oklahoma, into southern/central Kansas,
into western Missouri and Arkansas.  The light dust may extend farther
east, but it is hard to confirm in current satellite imagery.

 J Kibler


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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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.