Monday, July 21, 2014

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z July 21, 2014

Central and Eastern US/Canada:
The tremendous number of wildfires continuing to burn in the Northwest
Territories around Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes are generating a
massive amount of smoke that covers much of the central and eastern
US and Canada. Light smoke extends from central Northwest Territories
through most of Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba, southern
Hudson Bay and most of Ontario, Quebec and Labrador and into the
southern Labrador Sea. Moderate to dense smoke is seen over much of
central Northwest Territories and dipping into northeast Alberta and
northern Saskatchewan. In the US, the light smoke is over the Northern
and Central Plains, the Entire Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes and
Ohio Valleys and then in a band along the Mason Dixon line into southern
New England. A ribbon of moderately dense smoke was concentrated from far
southern Ontario across northwest Ohio into southern Indiana/Illinois and
into the Missouri Bootheel, northeast Arkansas and extreme northeast Texas
before curling counter clockwise across central Louisiana into southwest
Mississippi. The most dense part of the plume was from far western
Tennessee and the Missouri Bootheel into northeast Arkansas. There was
another small patch of moderately dense smoke that was tracking across
eastern Lake Ontario into western New York.

Washington/Southern British Columbia:
An area of light to moderately dense smoke from the numerous fires in
north central Washington was seen over most of the eastern two-thirds of
Washington and a small portion of adjoining British Columbia. A separate
area of light smoke was detected near the mouth of the Columbia River
and extending to the west into the Pacific. This smoke is from a large
fire blowup in eastern Siberia near Lake Baikal.

Southwestern Alaska/Bering Sea/Gulf of Alaska:
A large area of light to moderately dense remnant smoke is visible
extending from the Bering sea south and east over southwestern Alaska
to the Alaska range, the Cook Inlet, Kodiak Island and the Gulf of
Alaska. This smoke originates from fires in eastern Siberia near Lake
Baikal.

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.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.