Thursday, September 11, 2014

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z September 12, 2014

SMOKE
California:
A large area of smoke from the The Happy Camp and July complex fires
in northern California was seen over northern California, southwest
Oregon and northwest Nevada. The smoke was also being blown out into the
Pacific off the northern California coast. Moderate to dense smoke was
over the fire complexes and straddling much of the California/Oregon
border. An area of light smoke from the Meadow fire near Yosemite was
mainly drifting to the west into the central valley and northward over
the western slopes of the Sierra.

Idaho/Washington:
Numerous agricultural fires in northern Idaho and southeast Washington
were generating an area of light smoke as the individual plumes merged
together. The smoke area was generally drifting to the west.

Northwest Territories:
The long running fires to the west of Great Slave Lake in Northwest
Territories Canada have increased the past couple of days and are
generating a plume of light to moderate smoke that is moving to the
southeast into northern Alberta. The full extent of the smoke is hard
to discern due to extensive clouds over the area.

OTHER:
Washington:
Volcanic ash from the Mt St Helen's eruption in 1980 has been resuspended
in the air by high winds in the area. The ash was moving to the west of
the summit.

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.