DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0430Z May 28, 2010

Quebec/New England/Mid-Atlantic:
This evenings satellite imagery indicated a large area of thin to
locally moderately dense smoke extending from southern portions of
Quebec and Ontario through the eastern Great Lakes to the Tennessee and
Lower Mississippi Valleys.  The source for the smoke are several large
wildfires over southern Quebec and Ontario.

Gulf of Mexico through the Southern and Central Plains:
A large area of aerosols with unknown origin covers a large portion of
the Gulf of Mexico and then extends northwest through Texas and into
the southern and central Plains States.  It is believed that at least
some of these aerosols contain some remnant smoke from fire activity
over Mexico and possibly also from fire activity over Canada.

Four-Corners Region:
The vigorous system over the Great Basin and northern Rockies has helped
to cause an area of blowing dust with a source over north central Arizona
and then extending to the northeast through western Colorado and possibly
as far northeast as Wyoming.

Alaska/Yukon/Northwest Territories:
Numerous large wildfires over Alaska were combining to produce a rather
large smoke plume with embedded areas of moderate to extremely dense smoke
over a good portion of Alaska, the Yukon and far northwest portions of
the Northwest Territories.

Northern Mid-Atlantic:
The smoke plume that was earlier evident on satellite imagery over the
northern Mid-Atlantic has become much more difficult to detect due to
widespread cloud cover this evening but at least a portion of it was
still evident over New York and extending offshore from New Jersey south
to the Carolinas.

Hanna

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.