DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 15, 2011
Northern Mexico/South Texas/Gulf of Mexico: A broad area of smoke was seen this evening extending eastward from a tremendous number of fires over northwest Mexico (southwest Chihuahua and western Durango states). The smoke covered most of the area east of the fires across northern Mexico and also covered much of south and west Texas, south of a line from roughly Midland to San Antonio to Corpus Christi. The smoke then covered muc of the southern half of the Gulf of Mexico. The smoke was moderately dense over much of northern Mexico and the western Gulf and southeast Texas. There were pockets of dense smoke closer to the fire sources. Another area of moderately dense smoke was seen over the southeast Gulf of Mexico extending from the Yucatan northeastward to the west coast of Florida. Much of this smoke originated from the seasonal burning in the Yucatan and has gotten caught up in a frontal zone. Arizona/New Mexico: Two large fires continued to burn over southwest New Mexico and extreme southeast Arizona. They were generating plumes of moderately dense smoke that were moving to the northeast into central New Mexico. Additionally, an area of light blowing dust was moving to the northeast off the White Sands in south central New Mexico. Alberta/Saskatchewan: Wildfires have erupted over portions of west central Saskatchewan and central into northeast Alberta this evening. Large plumes of moderately dense to dense smoke were seen mainly moving to the north and northwest around the western periphery of a high pressure system. There were also a large number of agricultural fires in southern Saskatchewan that generated a broad area of light smoke that was drifting to the west across the province. Western Montana: Two small plumes of blowing dust were noted over northwest Montana near Kalispell and moving to the west. Nevada: Localized blowing dust was seen over southwest Nevada just west of Tonopah. This dust was lifting to the north. Southern California: An area of light blowing dust was seen drifting to the southeast over southern California near the Salton Sea. Ruminski 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