DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z May 28, 2017
SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico into southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley... The burning continues in the Yucatan and Central America and this has generated a large area of light to moderately dense smoke that covers much of the Gulf and extends into the Bahamas. The smoke is most notable over the western Gulf where it has been drawn northward into Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas where it is moderately dense. In areas of the eastern Gulf and the Bahamas the smoke is mixed with Saharan dust that has crossed the Atlantic. Southwest US... Fires in central and east central Arizona and western New Mexico were generating plumes of light to moderately dense smoke, with locally dense areas near the fires. These plumes were generally extending to the east observed to be burning overnight and emitting smoke plumes that were traveling east towards New Mexico. Florida... Numerous fires were detected in Florida. They were most numerous in the central and southern portion of the state, although one notable fire was in the panhandle near Panama City which had a light to moderately dense smoke plume that extended east and then southeast about 175km by sunset. Another notable fire was in the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee. Smoke from this fire was extending to the northeast toward Palm Beach. DUST: Western Atlantic/Caribbean/Cuba/Bahamas/Gulf of Mexico... A significant surge of Saharan dust has pushed west across the Caribbean and into the southeast Gulf of Mexico where it appears to have mixed with smoke from the seasonal burning in Mexico and Central America and hindered determination of the full extent of the dust. Southwest US... Small areas of light blowing dust were detected this evening over White Sands in south central NM and the Willcox Playa in southeast AZ. This dust was moving to the east northeast. AEROSOL... Western Canada into the northern Plains.... An unknown aerosol was observed over a broad area from the eastern slopes of the Rockies in Alberta and extending to the southeast across southwest Saskatchewan, eastern Montana and the western Dakotas. This is elevated aerosol and likely long range transport from Asia. Idaho/Nevada... Another unknown aerosol was detected along an east/west axis across southern Idaho into northern Nevada and was dropping to the south. California/Arizona... A narrow plume of light aerosol, possibly blowing dust, was seen prior to sunset and extended from the Mohave in southern California into central Arizona. Ruminski THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF 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