Friday, June 17, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1715Z June 17, 2011

Arizona/Colorado/West Texas/Kansas/Oklahoma/Northern Mexico:
Several large wildfires (e.g. Wallow, Horseshoe 2) continue to emit smoke;
however, the amount of smoke and density are much lighter than previously
seen.  Remnant smoke was visible this morning over western Texas and
much of Oklahoma. This rather large area of remnant smoke continues to
move to the east. The wildfires in northern Mexico also continue to burn
and are spreading smoke over northern Mexico and portions of Texas.

Pacific Northwest/British Columbia:
Thin areas of light smoke, likely remnant smoke from the Alberta
wildfires, were  visible this morning on satellite imagery.  Smoke
appears to be traveling southward  through British Columbia and this
smoke is entering the United States over Washington.  From there, the
remnant smoke moves to the southeast and east and    approaches the
Idaho/Wyoming border.  This smoke is circulating around an area of low
pressure in Alberta.

Ontario/Manitoba:
A large fire northwest of Lake Nipigon in western Ontario produced
an area of dense smoke that drifted to the west overnight. Satellite
imagery this morning shows the smoke, which is still moderate to heavy,
near the Manitoba/Ontario border.

Southeast US/Florida/Georgia:
A broad area of moderately dense smoke continues to be present over
extreme northeast Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and the western Atlantic
Ocean. An area of very dense smoke continues to originate in southern
Georgia from the Honey Prairie fire and others in and around the
Okefenokee swamp.  Numerous other fires over northeast and southern
Florida produced small areas of moderately dense to dense smoke overnight
as well.

Myrga

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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.