Wednesday, June 29, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z June 29, 2011


New Mexico into the Central and Southern Plains:
A large area of smoke from several wildfires burning in New Mexico was
seen stretching much of central and eastern New Mexico into extreme
southeast Colorado, the Texas Panhandle, all of Oklahoma and into
western Arkansas and Missouri. An arm of the smoke was being drawn north
over eastern Kansas into eastern Nebraska. Another batch of smoke was
circulating clockwise across northeast Texas and then curling westward
into west Texas extending back to near Midland. The areas of moderately
dense and dense smoke were mainly confined to eastern New Mexico near
the fires, with additional patches over west Texas north of the Big Bend.

US Atlantic Coast/Offshore:
The Juniper Road wildfire in Pender county in southeast North Carolina was
very active through the night as seen in infrared satellite imagery. While
extensive cloudiness hindered accurate determination of the extent and
density of the smoke with this fire, it generally was being channeled to
the northeast into the Western Atlantic ahead of a cold front that was
moving into northeast North Carolina this morning. Remnant smoke had also
drifted south and southwest along eastern South Carolina and Georgia to
near Jacksonville. Most of the smoke appeared to be light to the south of
the fire with areas of moderately dense to dense smoke to the northeast.

Northwest Mexico:
An area of very thin remnant smoke was seen over northwest Mexico and
covering much of the Gulf of California. This is smoke from the numerous
fires in Chihuahua and Durango that have been burning for weeks.

Western Great Lakes:
A ribbon of thin smoke was seen stretching from north central Wisconsin
and extending to the southeast into northern Indiana. The source of the
smoke is not entirely clear but likely from the wildfires in Canada.

Ontario:
Two areas of light smoke were detected from northwest into south central
Ontario (just north of the eastern end of Lake Superior) and moving to
the south. This is remnant smoke from fires in northwest Ontario.

Northern Canada:
Numerous wildfires continue to burn around Lake Athabasca in northern
Alberta/northern Saskatchewan. An extensive area of smoke extends
mainly to the east and northeast across far northern Saskatchewan and
Manitoba, eastern Northwest Territories, southern Nunavut and across
much of northern Hudson Bay. Clouds hinder the analysis but the most
dense smoke appears to extend to the northeast reaching northwest Hudson
Bay. Another small area of light smoke was seen extending east/west from
northeast Yukon into Northwest Territories.

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

 


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.