DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z May 20, 2011
Alaska/Northwest Territories/Alberta/Central and Northeastern Canada: A very large area of smoke can be see stretching from eastern portions of Alaska through the Northwest Territories eastward through central Canada and extending as far east as western portions of Labrador. Moderate to locally very dense smoke can be seen through northern Alberta and northwestern Saskatchewan and extending northwest through the Northwest Territories and into northern portions of Yukon. The source region for this smoke continues to be the large wildfires that are continuing to burn through north-central Alberta. British Columbia/West coast of US: A large and elongated band of mostly light smoke with some embedded moderate density smoke can be seen stretching from British Columbia southward through Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and into southern/central Arizona and then wrapping northeastward through New Mexico and into the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies. This smoke is believed to have originated from the wildfires currently burning through northern Alberta. Northern Mexico/Texas: A large number of fires continue to burn across portions of northern Mexico through southern/central Chihuahua and into Sinaloa and Durango this evening. This is creating a large area of light to moderate density smoke from northern Mexico into central/southern Texas. Gulf of Mexico: A large area of moderate to extremely dense smoke can be seen moving northward through the western and central Gulf of Mexico and extending inland towards the Arklatex region north to the Mid Mississippi Valley in this evenings satellite imagery. The source region for this smoke is likely from the numerous fires burning through southern Mexico and Central America. 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