DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z May 17, 2011
Alberta/Saskatchewan/Northwest Territory/Eastern British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario/Eastern Quebec: Wildfires continue to burn over portions of central to northeast Alberta. Large plumes of moderately dense to very dense smoke were seen moving east NE across northern Alberta, southern Northwest Territory and into northern sections of Saskatchewan and northwest Manitoba. Additional moderately dense to dense smoke is moving west NW into northern Alberta and northeast British Columbia. Lighter smoke extends a little farther south across Alberta, Saskatchewan and farther north into the Northwest Territories. Moderately dense to dense residual smoke from these wildfires is located across portions of eastern Manitoba, most of Ontario, the Hudson Bay region and east into western Quebec. The heaviest smoke is located across all of Ontario north into the Hudson Bay. This residual smoke is circulating in a clockwise direction under high pressure. Some cloudiness in this region of central Canada is preventing additional information on this area of smoke. J Kibler 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