Friday May 30, 2008

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

 


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.