DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1430Z May 30, 2014
Smoke: Funny River Complex Output: Smoke that was emitted from the Funny River fire complex on the Kenai peninsula in Alaska last weekend through early this week has tracked across northern but with a very large cyclone that has developed over central northern Canada; the smoke coverage area has nearly been bifurcated. Eastern Canada: On the eastern side of the cyclone, a large area of very thin smoke can be seen covering much of Northern and Eastern Hudson Bay/James bay, NE Ontario and W Quebec nearing the St. Lawrence River near Ottawa. On the SW edge of the thin smoke is a concentrated ribbon of moderately dense smoke that is about 20-30 km wide and extends from the central coastline of N Ontario and Hudson Bay SE along the SW portion of James Bay into W Quebec. Western Canada: On the western side of the cyclone, a large patch of thin to moderately dense smoke from early this week to mid week, can be seen piling up/concentrating under western flow impinging on the easterly flow being wrapped back by the cyclone. As such, the smoke is becoming more dense but also splitting to go NE and S and SE around the periphery of the large cyclone envelope. The pile up (moderate density) is mainly centered on the SW portions of the NW Territory and along the BC/Alberta boarder, thin smoke extends back east under the cyclone across central Alberta into Saskatchewan. Other thin smoke “feeder bands” can be seen across far NE Alaska and N Yukon Territory as well as S Yukon Territory and NE BC. Canadian Prairies: On the southern side of the cyclone, very thin smoke that is mixed with Asian dust from nearly a week ago as taken the longer path along the west coast of Canada, the US to rotate back northward across CA/NV/ID yesterday to reach the current location exiting central and NE MT into SE Saskatchewan and central Manitoba on the SWly inflow to the cyclone. Aerosols/Haze: The very large area of pollutant aerosols and mixed haze that was described yesterday across the Central US has not changed much except expanded the areal coverage under the influence of large upper level cyclone that is parked over the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Midwest US: Moderately dense to dense aerosols were seen in high oblique sun angles from GOES-West but are dense enough to still be seen in GOES-East at this time, it is located in the confluent flow along the northern side of the Miss. R. cyclone and northerly flow from the large cyclone in Canada, leaving the southern half of MN, IA/IL/IN, S OH and N KY under the affects of this dense area.... on the northern side it is moving N and the eastern side it is moving E but for the bulk of it...is stagnant. Northern Great Plains: Thin to moderately dense aerosols are seen moving NNW across the eastern half of NEB, SD and likely ND (though covered with clouds at this time). Southern Great Plains: Thin density aerosols can be be seen moving S across W KS, W OK (including panhandle), into west central central and southeastern Texas. For the most part this area is less dense than the others except near Houston and Gulf counties. Due to the different air mass, eastern KS, nearly all of MO and E OK appeared clear for the most part. Gallina 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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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