Friday, June 24, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z June 25, 2011

North central US/southern Canada/Ohio River Valley:
An elongated area of mostly moderately dense to heavy smoke continues to
be visible this evening stretching south from near the southern shore of
Hudson Bay through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Lake Superior.  This smoke
has likely originated from the large wildfires currently burning through
west/central Ontario, Canada. By sunset this evening, smoke reached areas
of the Ohio River Valley near Evansville, Indiana and Owensboro, Kentucky.

Northwestern Canada/Northern Alaska:
Wildfires in northeast Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, and southern
Northwest Territories are continuing to produce light to locally dense
smoke plume that is stretching from the northern portions of Alberta
and Saskatchewan into Yukon and Northwest Territories and finally into
northern Alaska.

Southern Plains:
A broad area of light, remnant smoke is present over much of northwestern
Texas, Oklahoma, western Arkansas and south-central Kansas.   This area
of light smoke, likely from the Arizona and Mexican wildfires, also mixed
with smoke from wildfires this evening throughout Texas and Oklahoma.
Moderately dense smoke was present in satellite imagery around sunset
in Stonewall, King, Knox and Haskell Counties, all in Texas.

Blowing Dust in the United States:

Arizona:
An area of blowing dust originated this evening along the Coconino County
and Navajo County border in northern Arizona.  By 0015Z, the dust moved
mainly to the east and entered McKinley County, New Mexico.

An area of blowing dust originated in northern Apache County, Arizona.
This area of blowing dust moved to the east, over the Four Corners region,
and moved into portions of New Mexico and Colorado.

Nevada:
A dust plume began in Clark County, Nevada this evening, southwest of
Las Vegas and Henderson.  The plume originated from what appears to be a
dry lake bed east of I-15 and near Jean Airport.    Dust from this area
moved to the northeast towards Lake Meade.

Blowing dust was visible in Churchill County, Nevada this evening near
Carson Sink.

Texas:
Multiple dust plumes began in western Texas this evening south and west of
Lubbock.  Dust moved generally to the north and mixed with remnant smoke.

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.