DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z June 08, 2011
Much of North America continues to be awash in smoke this evening. A significant portion of the smoke over the eastern two thirds of the contiguous US is from the massive Wallow and Horseshoe 2 fires in southeast Arizona which have been burning out of control for the past 4 or 5 days. The thickest smoke extends from eastern Arizona through New Mexico, western Texas, most of Kansas, eastern Nebraska, southern Minnesota and much of Iowa. Thick smoke has also drifted into Michigan, Ohio and Lake Erie. A fire also erupted this afternoon over southeast Colorado and was producing a plume of thick smoke that was moving to the east into western Kansas. A fire over far eastern North Carolina (the Pains Bay fire) is producing an area of moderately dense to dense smoke that is drifting south over the Atlantic. A fire over southern Florida (the Prairie Fire) in Dade county was producing a plume of dense smoke that moved west into the Gulf of Mexico mixing with other remnant smoke. The massive wildfires in northern Alberta near Lake Athabasca are again producing very dense smoke. Today's smoke is drifting to the south and extends from the fires into southern Saskatchewan and Alberta. Ruminski/Ramirez 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