DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z May 31, 2009
Western Great Lakes into the Ohio Valley: A broad area of thin smoke was seen extending from eastern Minnesota and Iowa across Wisconsin and northern Illinois into Michigan, Indiana and southwest Ohio. This is a mixture of smoke from agricultural fires in North Dakota, Minnesota and southern Manitoba as well as smoke from a large fire in southwest Alberta last evening. The western/northern extent of this remnant smoke is uncertain due to extensive cloudiness over northern Minnesota and vicinity. Central Plains: An area of aerosol was seen over central Missouri and eastern Kansas. The source and composition of aerosol is unknown. Gulf of Mexico: Remnant smoke from the Mexican and Guatemala fires continues to be observed across the southern Gulf of Mexico, mainly confined to an area south of about 24N and west of 85W. The smoke this morning is less dense than has been observed the past couple of days. Mid Atlantic Coast: Remnant smoke was seen off the Mid Atlantic coast east of New Jersey and the Delmarva and south of Long Island and Caper Cod. The smoke is quite thin and is believed to be remnant from agricultural fires in the northern Plains. Ruminski 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