DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z June 16, 2011
Southwest US/Texas/northern Mexico: Several large wildfires (e.g. Wallow, Horseshoe 2) continue to emit moderately dense to dense smoke that extends across central New Mexico and into Texas. The eastern edge of this smoke is around Abilene, TX when viewed on satellite imagery this evening. Southeast US/eastern North Carolina: A broad area of moderately dense smoke continues to be present over the northeast Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean. The origins of this smoke include the Honey Prairie wildfire in the Okefenokee swamp and several other fires in Florida. The Pains Bay wildfire in coastal North Carolina continues to burn and produce an area of moderately dense smoke that extends southeast over the Atlantic. Central Saskatchewan/eastern North Dakota: A very light ribbon of smoke is present from central Saskatchewan into the southwest corner of Manitoba and northeast corner of North Dakota. This appears to be remnant smoke from the Lake Athabasca vicinity wildfires. Northeast Alberta/northwest Saskatchewan/Northwest Territories: Wildfires continue today in the Lake Athabasca vicinity and are producing light to moderately dense smoke. Though the smoke is largely obscured by heavy cloud cover, it is evident that it is being wrapped westward into a low pressure as far west as northeast British Columbia and subsequently pushed north then east across the southern Northwest Territories. Hudson Bay/Quebec/Ontario: Another broad area of thin density smoke likely from the wildfires in the Lake Athabasca vicinity is observed over much of the Hudson bay, with an elongated ribbon extending southeast into central Quebec. A large wildfire in western Ontario (northwest of Lake Nipigon) is emitting moderately dense to thick smoke. The smoke originally moves northward and then curves east into James Bay. Ramirez/Ruminski 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