DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1530Z May 21, 2008

Gulf of Mexico/Florida:
An area of haze extends from the Bay of Campeche and the Yucatan Peninsula
northeastward across the south central Gulf of Mexico and the central and
southern portion of the Florida peninsula to the Bahamas.  This region
of haze is believed to be mainly composed of leftover smoke from the
large number of seasonal fires continuing to burn across portions of
southeastern Mexico and Central America.

Some thin Smoke from the fires located on the western shore of Lake
Okeechobee was seen in early morning visible imagery moving to the east
over the lake.

South Central Canada to the Ohio Valley:
Early morning visible imagery showed a large elongated swath of possible
thin smoke extending from northern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba
provinces of south central Canada southeastward over the Dakotas and
Minnesota to at least as far southeast as the Ohio Valley and mid
Mississippi Valley.  The source region of this possible smoke is not
definitely known, but it may be from fires in Russia.

Idaho:
More possible leftover smoke of thin density from the Russian fires
was seen this morning in a north-south oriented band extending from the
border of northern Idaho-western Montana to the border of southwestern
Idaho-northeastern Nevada.  The band of possible smoke was moving slowly
to the east.

JS

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.