Sunday, May 29, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 30, 2011

Western Canada/Pacific Northwest:
Very dense smoke from wildfires in northeastern Alberta Province
was visible generally spreading in a southward direction during the
afternoon and evening. Thin to moderately dense smoke surrounded the
dense smoke and covered a large area including western Saskatchewan,
much of Alberta, and a good portion of British Columbia. Thin smoke also
extended to the northwest over northwestern Canada, northern Alaska,
and over the Arctic Ocean.

Alaska/Western Canada:
A number of fires producing visible smoke were noted across east
central, central, west central Alaska, and east central Yukon Province of
northwestern Canada. Thin smoke extended over a good portion of central
Alaska, while moderately dense to dense smoke was visible across eastern
and southeastern Alaska and the east central part of the Yukon Province.

Southeastern US:
Fires producing visible smoke were scattered across Alabama, Georgia,
and Florida. A patch of thin remnant smoke was seen drifting off to the
northwest over north central Georgia. The source of this smoke is not
exactly known, but it is believed to be from the large fire burning in
Ware County of southeastern Georgia.

Southwest/South Central/Mexico/Gulf of Mexico:
A very large batch of mainly thin smoke was visible covering a good
portion of northern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico. The thin smoke
also extended northward over nearly all of Texas and farther north over
the Central Plains. In addition, several very long moderately dense to
dense smoke plumes were observed moving to the northeast from fires in
northwestern Texas, southeastern Colorado, southeastern Arizona, and
northern and west central Mexico. The very large mass of smoke covering
the region described above was likely due to the larger fires over
the south central and southwestern US as well as the ongoing fires in
Mexico and Central America. Also, significant blowing dust was visible
moving to the northeast from many point sources in a number of spots
across the south central and southwestern US and northern Mexico. The
most significant blowing dust appeared to be originating from sources
in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. These streaks of
moderately dense to locally dense blowing dust spread northeastward
over southeastern Utah and the 4 corners region into southwestern
Colorado. Another significant streak of blowing dust originated from
White Sands in south central New Mexico and nearly reached the Texas
border by sunset.

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

 


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.