DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z APRIL 26, 2008
Western Canada/Western and Central US/Pacific Ocean: Smoke of mainly thin density likely originating from recent large Russian fires and possibly mixed with some Asian dust/sand continues to move over portions of the eastern Pacific Ocean and across Canada and the US. GOES-West visible satellite imagery this morning showed a patch of this residual smoke moving southward across the eastern Pacific, just off the California and Baja coast. Another thin ribbon of possible residual smoke stretched from just off the Pacific Northwest coast, inland over Washington and Oregon, and then southeastward and eastward over Nevada and the 4 corners region, before turning northeast across the Central Plains of Kansas/Missouri to the southern Great Lakes region. More possible smoke extended from the Northern Plains southeastward over Iowa and Illinois. Finally, yet another very long swath of possible smoke appeared to extend from the Northwest Territories of Canada southeastward over portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces of Canada, to central Montana. Texas: A relatively small patch of smoke was visible moving to the north across southwestern Texas toward the Texas-New Mexico border just west of Midland TX. This smoke was leftover from a significant fire which was burning yesterday and overnight across northern Brewster County of southwestern Texas. Western Gulf of Mexico: A large mass of primarily thin density smoke covered the Bay of Campeche and the far western Gulf of Mexico. Some of this smoke also was visible over extreme eastern Mexico with the leading edge very close to southern Texas. This smoke was due to the ongoing seasonal fires burning across portions of Mexico and Central America. JS