DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1702Z May 14, 2012
Smoke: A very large area of high altitude smoke can be tracked nearly across the entire US/Canada to be described by region in detail below. The source of this high level smoke can be tracked back to large wildfire complexes along the Russian/Manchuria (China) boarder, just NE of far eastern Mongolia in S Siberia. About a week ago these fires had numerous Pryocumulonimbus (PyroCBs) associated with them leading to transport into the high altitude troposphere, and so has been acting as a very nice tracer of upper level flow features including many cyclones and ridges. Gulf of Alaska: Thin smoke can be seen extending from E Russia across the Bering Sea the northern Aleutians and SW Alaskan Peninsula into the base of a well defined trof and sfc cyclene in the Gulf of AK, near 51N147W. The stream then extends NE to the top of the ridge in N BC (see below). N British Colombia/Central Canada: An embedded swath of moderately dense smoke can be seen extending from the top of the ridge over N BC, extending SE across C Alberta into C Saskatchewan to the northern tip of Lake Winnipeg. This area is about 250-275km wide and is embedded in the larger thin area that extends south into Central BC, Southern Alberta, S Saskatchewan and S Manitoba not really extending into the US attm. S Manitoba/North Dakota: A few fires across east central Alberta last night emitted smoke that can still be traced in the mid to lower levels across S Manitoba into far NE ND starting to move into far NW MN attm. This smoke is thin to moderate in density and is about 200km (NW-SE) by 300km (SW-NE). E Canada/Great Lakes: There is a small gap across Ontario in the Siberian Fires' smoke train (though it is just likely a bit to light to detect) before we get to the leading edge of thin to moderately smoke that covers all of E Ontario and much of central and southern Quebec starting to move into far SW Labrador and across the upper portions of the St. Lawrence Seaway and is moving rapidly east. The SW to NE oriented smoke is about 500km wide E-W and extends back across Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Michigan where flow becomes a bit lighter, deforming the smoke plume as it connects to... Central US/Southern Great Plains: A large cyclone dropped south across the Rockies and intensified over the last day or so... as such has pulled the smoke southward with it making a ball of thin to moderate smoke at the cyclone center currently over the TX panhandle. Smoke extends outward particularly on the western side of the cyclone covering all of NM, SE half of CO. This also connects to the area described above, covering all of KS, 2/3rds of NE all of IA, N MO, S WI, N IL and into Lake Michigan. It appears that some of the balled up smoke has rotated around the base of the cyclone and is beginning to be seen in the cirrus shield on the warm side across OK into AR at this time. N Minnesota/N Great Lakes/UP Michigan: 3 large prairie fires over far SE Manitoba produced large exhalations of moderately dense smoke throughout last night and can be seen tracking across the Boundary Waters of N MN covering all the Lake Superior and the UP of Michigan. The initial burst of smoke can be seen moving below the upper level smoke described above across E Ontario and the Georgian Bay. This smoke is moving ESE slowly indicative of slightly lower altitude than Siberian smoke area. SW US/NW Mexico: Thin low level smoke from the 3 fires (Gladiator, Bull Flat, and Sunflower) in AZ and a new fire in far S Catron county NM can be seen tracking across SE AZ, SW NM, N Sonora, N Chihuahua moving SE. The eastern portion of this area is being pulled NE to the sfc cyclone across SE NM and the western TX panhandle. Gallina 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