Tuesday, June 7, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z June 07, 2011

Much of North America is awash in smoke this afternoon. A significant
portion of the smoke over the eastern two thirds of the contiguous
US is from the massive Wallow fire southeast Arizona which has been
burning out of control for the past 4 or 5 days. The thickest smoke
extends from eastern Arizona through New Mexico, eastern Colorado,
western Texas, western Kansas, much of Nebraska, eastern South Dakota,
southern Minnesota and much of Iowa.

A fire over far eastern North Carolina (the Pains Bay fire) is producing
an area of moderately dense to dense smoke that is drifting south over
the Atlantic.

The massive wildfires in northern Alberta near Lake Athabasca are again
producing very dense smoke. Today's smoke and remnant smoke from the
past couple of days is drifting to the southeast and extends from the
fires to Lake Winnipeg and into western Ontario.

Ruminski/Salemi


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.