DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 26, 2011
West Central to Northeast Mexico/South Central US/Western Gulf of Mexico: An large area of thin density smoke covered northern and northeastern Mexico and a portion of the western Gulf of Mexico during the day. The smoke also extended northward and northeastward across central and eastern Texas and even farther to the northeast in a more narrow band along and ahead of a frontal system over the lower and middle Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley region. Embedded within this large area of smoke was a region of more moderately dense smoke across the western Gulf of Mexico, southeastern Texas, and western Louisiana. More patches of moderately dense to locally dense smoke were also visible closer to the active fires burning over west central Mexico. This entire area of smoke was mainly due to seasonal fires that continue to burn over Mexico and Central America. Southeast US: An area of thin smoke which was visible earlier this morning was still observed in satellite imagery over portions of the Southeast and Middle Atlantic region and extending offshore over the Atlantic. This remnant smoke is most likely left over from the fires not only occurring in Mexico and Central America, but also from the fires burning in the Southeastern US. Northern Alaska/Northern Territories/Central and Southern Canada/North Central US: Large wildfires continue to burn primarily over northeastern Alberta province in western Canada. Smoke from these fires was spreading to the southeast reaching as far as southern Ontario Province of south central Canada and the northern US from North Dakota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and to the northwest extending across northwestern Canada to northern Alaska and the Arctic. A band of moderately dense to dense smoke was also visible within the larger area covering northern Alberta and northern British Columbia provinces as well as central and southern Saskatchewan province. From there, this band of moderately dense to dense smoke became much more narrow as it moved southward into North Dakota, northern Minnesota, Lake Superior, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. SO2 in Central and Eastern Canada: Satellite imagery showed a ribbon of SO2 from the recently erupting volcano in Iceland extending southwestward from Greenland into northeastern Canada, southward over the middle of Hudson Bay, and curving eastward over northern Ontario province to central Quebec province. BLOWING DUST IN THE UNITED STATES: Western and Central Texas: Blowing dust mixed with smoke from nearby fires was visible moving southeast across northwestern and western Texas into central Texas. The source regions for the blowing dust were likely from spots between Lubbock and Midland. JS THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE 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 ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov