DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1530Z May 30, 2008
East Central Gulf of Mexico: A patch of haze was visible this morning moving to the west over the east central Gulf of Mexico. It is possible that this haze is partly or mostly leftover smoke which originated from fires burning over the southern half of the Florida peninsula yesterday. Mexico/Southern and South Central US: A large mass of haze was evident in satellite imagery stretching from southern Baja, the eastern Pacific, and southwestern Mexico northeastward across a large portion of the southern and south central US which is most likely leftover smoke from seasonal fires burning over southern and southwestern Mexico. The mixture of smoke and other atmospheric pollutants covered southeastern New Mexico, much of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, southeastern Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Tennessee. The smoke appeared to be the thickest from northeastern Texas to eastern Kansas and western Missouri, and also from Louisiana and Mississippi to Missouri. Farther to the east, the haze was not nearly as visible due to the unfavorable morning sun angle using the GOES-East satellite. Western Canada: A swath of thin smoke likely originating from a fire burning in north central British Columbia was visible moving to the southeast across eastern British Columbia and northern Alberta province. South Central Canada/northeastern Montana/northwestern North Dakota: A region of haze with some possible contribution from smoke was observed moving to the southeast across southern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba province of south central Canada into northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota. Cloudiness a bit farther to the southeast limited additional haze/smoke detection. The source region for this possible smoke was not known at this time. JS