DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0430Z May 29, 2011
Western Canada: A large area of moderate to extremely dense smoke covered most of the southern portion of Alberta and likely extended into portions of southeastern British Columbia. The source of this smoke continued to be the large wildfires occurring over northeastern Alberta. The southern extent of this smoke was difficult to analyze due to widespread cloud cover over the region. East US Coast: This evenings satellite imagery indicated an area of remnant light smoke from just offshore the Carolinas and extending northeast into portions of New England. The source region of this smoke was likely partially from a wildfire over eastern North Carolina and also from the large number of fires over Mexico. Northern Mexico/Southern Plains/Western Gulf of Mexico: A large area of remnant smoke of which some was moderate density is apparent across a large portion of Mexico and extending northeast through Oklahoma and into the Mid Mississippi Valley. The majority of this remnant smoke has come from the fires in northwestern Mexico. It is believed that some airborne dust may also be mixed in with the smoke. Western/Northern US: An aerosol plume that is believed to be partially composed of dust from Asia and also from smoke from the wildfires over northern Alberta can be seen this evening stretching from just off the Washington and Oregon coast and extending eastward towards the Dakotas. Southwestern United States: Several areas of blowing dust were noted over the southwestern United States. Those particular areas were over southern California and extending towards the northern Gulf of California, over northeastern Arizona, White Sands New Mexico and over portions of West Central Texas. Hanna THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE 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 ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov