DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z May 19, 2010
Midwestern US: A large area of thin remnant smoke covered portions of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. In addition, moderately dense to dense smoke was seen moving from southwest Wisconsin westward into Iowa and southeast Minnesota. This remnant smoke is believed to have come from several smoke producing fires that were burning yesterday in northern Michigan. North Central US/South Central to Southeast Canada: An expansive swath of remnant smoke, generally thin in nature, could be seen wrapping northwestward from southwest Minnesota across the Dakotas to southeast Saskatchewan and northward into southern Manitoba. From here the leftover smoke covered nearly all of southern Ontario except for the southeast corner and stretched northeast across Quebec. Most of this smoke is believed to be from the numerous agricultural fires that have been burning across south central Canada and the north central US over the past few days. Additional smaller areas of smoke were seen drifting near Anticosti Island and south of Newfoundland, which may be associated with several fires yesterday in central Quebec. Western Gulf of Mexico: Only a small amount of thin smoke could be seen this morning over the northwestern Gulf and along the deep southern coast of Texas. Likely this smoke originated from fires in Mexico. Louisiana/Mississippi A small area of very thin aerosol believed to be remnant smoke was seen over northern Louisiana and southwest Mississippi this morning. Alaska/Northwest Canada: Residual and active smoke was noticed this morning over central Alaska coming from a large fire, believed to be the Toklat fire. In addition, an unknown aerosol stretched from the northwestern corner of the Northwest Territories westward across northern Alaska. THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED 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 THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov