DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0700Z May 30, 2011
UPDATE: Bering Sea and Aleutians: An area of unknown aerosol was seen covering much of the southeast portion of the Bering Sea, Bristol Bay and the upper Aleutians out ahead of an approaching large storm system. The origin of the aerosol is not known, although there are several possibilities including blowing dust or smoke from fires in Asia or remnant smoke from the fires in northern Alberta. Ruminski Previous discussion: Western Canada/Pacific Northwest: Very dense smoke from wildfires in northeastern Alberta Province was visible generally spreading in a southward direction during the afternoon and evening. Thin to moderately dense smoke surrounded the dense smoke and covered a large area including western Saskatchewan, much of Alberta, and a good portion of British Columbia. Thin smoke also extended to the northwest over northwestern Canada, northern Alaska, and over the Arctic Ocean. Alaska/Western Canada: A number of fires producing visible smoke were noted across east central, central, west central Alaska, and east central Yukon Province of northwestern Canada. Thin smoke extended over a good portion of central Alaska, while moderately dense to dense smoke was visible across eastern and southeastern Alaska and the east central part of the Yukon Province. Southeastern US: Fires producing visible smoke were scattered across Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. A patch of thin remnant smoke was seen drifting off to the northwest over north central Georgia. The source of this smoke is not exactly known, but it is believed to be from the large fire burning in Ware County of southeastern Georgia. Southwest/South Central/Mexico/Gulf of Mexico: A very large batch of mainly thin smoke was visible covering a good portion of northern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico. The thin smoke also extended northward over nearly all of Texas and farther north over the Central Plains. In addition, several very long moderately dense to dense smoke plumes were observed moving to the northeast from fires in northwestern Texas, southeastern Colorado, southeastern Arizona, and northern and west central Mexico. The very large mass of smoke covering the region described above was likely due to the larger fires over the south central and southwestern US as well as the ongoing fires in Mexico and Central America. Also, significant blowing dust was visible moving to the northeast from many point sources in a number of spots across the south central and southwestern US and northern Mexico. The most significant blowing dust appeared to be originating from sources in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. These streaks of moderately dense to locally dense blowing dust spread northeastward over southeastern Utah and the 4 corners region into southwestern Colorado. Another significant streak of blowing dust originated from White Sands in south central New Mexico and nearly reached the Texas border by sunset. JS 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