DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THRU 1800Z August 15, 2005
Alaska/Canada/northern U.S.: Numerous very large fires burning across west central to east central Alaska continue to produce huge amounts of smoke which have spread both westward and southeastward. Some of the smoke has drifted westward across western Alaska and over the Bering Strait and Bering Sea into the Chukchi Peninsula of eastern Russia. Dense smoke exists closer to the actual fires across a good portion of central Alaska. Mid and upper level winds have also picked up some of the smoke and transported it southeastward across British Columbia and over the southern portions of the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and western Quebec (just south of Hudson Bay). The smoke then becomes very thin and diffuse likely mixing with haze across Quebec Province. This area of smoke also has spread southward into the northern U.S. affecting much of Montana, North Dakota, the northern half of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The siginficant fires burning across southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, north central Idaho, and western Montana are also responsible for an area of smoke this morning which was visible across this region extending eastward in a thin ribbon across north central Wyoming, western South Dakota (around the Black Hills), and eventually merging with the larger area of smoke further north over North Dakota.