DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z August 21, 2010

Southwestern Canada to Eastern Canada/Northeastern US/Middle Atlantic
States/ Western Atlantic/Canadian Maritimes/Labrador Sea:
Smoke from the ongoing large fires in British Columbia Province of
southwestern Canada continues to cover a very large area with thin
density smoke extending from British Columbia eastward over much of
south central Canada to southeastern Canada. Some of the leading edge
of the thinner smoke had also moved over a portion of the northern
tier of the US, especially over the region from northeastern Montana
to the western Great Lakes region. Thinner smoke also extended eastward
and southeastward from the Great Lakes region to off the Northeast and
Middle Atlantic coast, but cloudiness across a good portion of the region
prevented some details concerning the full extent of the smoke. Embedded
moderately dense to dense smoke extended from British Columbia eastward
to Ontario Province. Some of the thin to moderately dense smoke also has
spread northeastward around an area of low pressure into central Canada
around Hudson Bay. An additional rather large area of thin density smoke
was visible over portions of the Canadian Maritimes and the Labrador Sea
to near Greenland. Farther to the west, cloudiness still covers the region
where large fires existed recently over northern Saskatchewan Province
of west central Canada. Some of the smoke in areas of central to eastern
Canada, the Canadian Maritimes, and portions of the Northeastern and
Middle Atlantic regions of the US may be composed at least partly of
smoke from the Saskatchewan fires, though it is believed to be mostly
composed of smoke from the British Columbia fires.

Wyoming:
A patch of thin leftover smoke could be seen early this morning moving
to the east over central Wyoming. This smoke was likely leftover from
last evening's larger fires over western Wyoming as well as a very large
one over southern Idaho near the Nevada border.

JS


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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/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.