Thursday, June 18, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z June 18, 2009

Southern Plains to Lower Mississippi Valley:
Thin to moderately dense remnant smoke from fires in the southern Plains
over the past few days was seen across parts of Tennessee, Mississippi,
Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The area of smoke, which is
trapped beneath an upper level ridge, was slowly progressing eastward.

Southern Canada/Northern Plains/Great Lakes Region:
Two large areas of thin remnant smoke with embedded moderately dense
smoke leftover  from fires in past few days continued to swirl around
southern Canada, progressing slowly to the east. These areas of smoke were
split by a band of thick clouds stretching northward from the US across
western Ontario. One area of smoke stretched from North Dakota/Minnesota
to southern Alberta and central Saskatchewan with moderately dense
smoke on the southern edge of the upper low over the region. The other
area was over Ontario/western Quebec and the northern Great Lakes with
moderately dense smoke northeast of Lake Superior and moderately dense
to very dense smoke over north central Ontario.

East Canada:
Thin remnant smoke now well off the coast of New England was seen
stretching across Nova Scotia and southeast Newfoundland to the Labrador
Sea.

West Canada:
Thin remnant smoke was seen this morning positioned across parts of the
Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, British Columbia, and Alberta
moving slowly east and southeast.

Alaska:
Thin remnant smoke was observed across northern Alaska being wrapped
into an upper low over the northwest corner of the state.

Sheffler


More information on additional areas of smoke associated with these
fires and others can be found at the locations listed below.

THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER
DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE
PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE:

JPEG:   http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html
GIS:    http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm
KML:    http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html

THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE
WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE
SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO
STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST.

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT
PRODUCT IN GENERAL 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.