DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z June 17, 2010
Dust/Sand: Arizona/New Mexico: Strong Swly winds across the US desert Southwest is transporting thin to moderately dense sand and dust toward the NE across much of the Mogollon Plateau into the Four Corners region and NW NM. Sand/dust extends as far NE as Mesa county and La Plata/San Juan counties in CO. A large area of smoke from a fire NW of Flagstaff, AZ covers areas of sand/dust across N AZ. Nevada: Strong northerly winds behind cold front stretching across S NV has kicked up a thin area of sand with a moderately dense front/leading edge as it kicks SW. The line/front extends from near the Northern Death Valley across ext. S Nye county across the NW portion Clark county across to NW of St. George UT. A thin to moderately dense plume of sand/dust from the Carson Sink in N Churchill county is moving in a 30km wide plume ESE covering southern Lander and Eureka counties. A thin to moderately dense plume of sand/dust from Newark Lake in far W White Pine county is a similar plume but is moving more due E across White Pine county likely affecting Ely and US50 into W UT. Smoke: Central US/Central Canada/Great Lakes: Remnant smoke that was pulled Southward around the backside of upper cyclone (currently over Lake Ontario) over the last few days from fires in Saskatchewan is stretched out across nearly all of the US Central Plains from KS/OK boarder north to Lake Winnepeg/Lake Mantioba then across to S Hudson Bay across Manitoba and N Ontario before it once again drops south across central Ontario into Lake Superior and E UP of MI. The smoke is now more affected by the ridging across this area...and so the western portion covering all of KS/NE/SD/ND is moving due north, while the smoke over Manitoba is moving NE to E and the smoke over central Ontario is moving due south but stalling over Lake Superior (slight SEward drift). An extention of smoke extend SEward across central MN, S WI, S Lake Michigan in to NE Indiana. S Illinois/Kentucky: An extension of unknown aerosols (though likely thin smoke mixed with pollutants and haze) extends from the Bootheel of MO across the far 2 or 3 counties of IL into W KY across nearly to the VA state line (though not affecting N 1/3 of KY) and is moving due E. South Central and South East US: High moisture content and pollutants (particularly detectable near power plants and other static heat sources such as factories/foundries and smelting operations are producing pockets of moderate haze across E TX, AR, MS and AL. There may be a bit of light smoke associated with this area...though likely much less concentration than areas in IL/KY and Great Plain states. SE Coastal Zones and Sargasso Sea: A large area of unknown haze/high aerosol concentration covers a large portion of the Atlantic/Sargasso Sea particularly along the coast from NC/SC boarder SEward along the Gulf Steam to about Cape Canaveral then extends out in lower concentration along 30N (about 2 degrees of lat wide) to 70W then extends about 1 degree wide along 29N out further. There is a possibility that this air could contain remnant Saharan dust/sand...though not very sure. NW Canada: Remnant thin smoke from fires in AK and Yukon Territory over the last week can be seen covering far NE BC, N ΒΌ of Alberta, Far SW NW Territories (from the MacKenzie River output from Great Slave Lake) over to the Yukon Prov. Line, and covering W Lake Athabasca in far far NW Saskatchewan. This area continues to drift slowly S and SEward with the area of Athabasca being pulled NE under the influence of exiting upper level cyclone over SW Nunavut. Gallina 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