DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 31, 2011
Western Canada/Alaska: Dense smoke continues to spread southward from the large wildfire in northeastern Alberta Province. The larger area of thin to moderately dense smoke associated with this fire basically covers the same region described this morning(see below). More fires producing visible smoke were scattered across west central to east central Alaska and the east central portion of the Yukon Province of northwestern Canada. A larger batch of moderately dense smoke from several of these fires was located over eastern and southeastern Alaska. Pacific Northwest to the Southwest: A region of aerosol seen earlier this morning has moved a bit farther to the east and extends from the Pacific Northwest southward to northern Arizona. This aerosol was analyzed as smoke in the graphical products (see links below), however there is some uncertainty if this is remnant smoke from the Alberta fires which has been wrapped around the western end of the large trof moving across the Western and Central US or if it is some other aerosol such as blowing dust which originated over Asia and was transported a long distance across the Pacific aloft and into the US. Northern Mexico/South Central and Central US: The very large mass of mainly thin density smoke was still visible across northern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico. The smoke extended northward across Texas and over the Central Plains reaching at least as far north as South Dakota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Cloudiness did interfere with determining the northward extent of this smoke. Some of the larger fires over southeastern Colorado, eastern and southeastern Arizona, western and northern Mexico, as well as fire activity farther to the south in Mexico and Central America were likely contributing to this large region of smoke. Some blowing dust from yesterday and today was also adding to this aerosol covering this region. The source regions for blowing dust today were a bit farther to the east and included White Sands in south central New Mexico, along with numerous source points in western and northwestern Texas, western Oklahoma, and western Kansas. The blowing dust was generally moving to the northeast or north-northeast. Southeast/Tennessee and Ohio Valley Region: What is believed to be an area of remnant thin density smoke was visible late this afternoon wrapping clockwise around a region of high pressure The area of smoke, possibly mixed with other pollutants was analyzed extending from northern Georgia and northern Alabama, northward over Tennessee and Kentucky, and into Ohio and West Virginia. The smoke contribution for this aerosol was likely primarily from the active fires burning in southeastern Georgia. JS Earlier Today... Western Canada/Alaska/Pacific Northwest: A large area of light, remnant smoke can be seen from central/northern Saskatchewan westward through Alberta/central British Columbia northward into the Northwest Territories/Yukon and northern/eastern Alaska. A smaller band of light smoke can be seen stretching to the south and east through the Pacific Northwest and moving through Nevada. Most of this smoke is coming from the wildfires that continue to burn in northern Alberta where heavy, dense smoke can be seen through northern and central Alberta into Saskatchewan. Further to the north through Alaska and northwest Canada, wildfires that are burning through Alaska and western Yukon are contributing to the remnant smoke as well as a more moderately dense area in southeast Alaska. There is also a band of moderate smoke moving southward from the Arctic through northern Alaska and Yukon which could be from the Alberta fires or could be smoke and/or other aerosols coming from near the Kamchatka Peninsula. Central US/Northern Mexico/Western Gulf of Mexico: A large area of light smoke can be seen in this morning's imagery from northern Mexico through Texas and into the central Plains stretching as far east as Illinois. This is from the continued fires through Mexico and Central America as well as more recent fires through the southwest. There is also a possibility that blowing dust from yesterday evening could be mixing in with smoke as well today as surface winds continue to be strong out of the south/southwest. East Coast: A patch of thin smoke could be seen off the Mid-Atlantic and New England coast today as remnant smoke that is coming up through the Central Plains from Mexico is getting rotate counter-clockwise around the High pressure over the eastern US. Smoke could also be mixed with haze over this region as well. Belge 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