DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z May 21, 2011
Alaska/Northern Yukon/Northwest Territories/Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba: A very large area of smoke can be see stretching from northeastern portions of Alaska through the Northwest Territories and southeastward to west central Canada. Moderate to locally very dense smoke can be seen over northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, and northern Manitoba provinces. Much of this smoke is believed to be from the large wildfires burning in northern Alberta. British Columbia/Western US: A large band of mostly light smoke with some embedded moderate density smoke can still be seen in the same general area stretching from central British Columbia southward through Washington, Oregon, Nevada and into southern Utah and northwest Arizona. All of this smoke is believed to have originated from the wildfires currently burning in northern Alberta. Eastern Canada: The long and thin area of light smoke which was seen earlier today from near the Ontario/Quebec border eastward into far eastern Quebec was no longer visible by late in the day. This was likely remnant smoke from the wildfires in northern Alberta. Central Oklahoma to Northern Mexico and Central Baja: The persistent very thin and elongated area of light, remnant smoke had shifted a bit more to the east during the day and extended from at least as far northeast as central Oklahoma southwestward across north central to southwestern Texas. The thin band then extended over northwestern Mexico down into central Baja California. This smoke was seen moving southward down the West Coast yesterday and is from the wildfires currently burning through northern Alberta. Northern Mexico/Central Texas/Gulf of Mexico: A very large mass of smoke covered a good portion of northern Mexico as well as the Gulf of Mexico. The smoke also extended northward into the south central US. Areas of moderately dense to locally dense smoke were embedded within this large area particularly over the western Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Texas as well as in western Mexico closer to a large cluster of fires. The sources for all of this smoke was a combination of fires burning over Mexico and Central America. JS 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