Saturday, August 8, 2015

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 8, 2015

SMOKE
Alaska:
The smoke from the Alaskan wildfires is getting shunted to the east ahead
of a frontal system this morning sweeping through western Alaska. The
smoke covers most of the eastern half of the state and the western
portion of Yukon Territory. Moderately dense to dense smoke was mostly
over northeast Alaska, although clouds now cover the fires in the central
part of the state and are prohibiting smoke detection.

Northern Canada:
Similar to yesterday, smoke from fires around Great Slave and Great
Bear Lakes extended to the east and northeast. The smoke covered much of
Great Slave Lake and and stretched to the northeast, mixing with clouds,
nearly reaching the northwest shore of Hudson Bay. Much of the smoke
around the vicinity of Great Slave Lake was moderate to dense.

Northeast Canada:
A broad area of light smoke was seen over northeast Quebec and northern
Newfoundland and Labrador, crossing the Davis Straight reaching the
southwest coast of Greenland.

Pacific Northwest:
A plume of light to moderately dense smoke from the Wolverine fire in
the northern Cascades of Washington extended to the north into southern
British Columbia. Smoke from the numerous wildfires burning in northwest
California blanketed the northern portion of the state extending into far
southern Oregon, southwest Idaho and the northern half of Nevada. The
smoke also extended to the south of the fires along and off the coast
to a position west of Point Conception. The smoke is moderate to dense
over nearly all of northern California from about Lake Tahoe and San
Francisco north to the Oregon border.

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.