DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z May 16, 2012
Central and Eastern Canada and from the Great Lakes into Texas: The large area of high level remnant smoke (some of this smoke has been detected 11 to 12 km high in the atmosphere) continues to slowly makes its way eastward across North America this evening. Mainly light smoke was seen extending from northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba south southeastward into southern Ontario, Upper Midwest and Great Lakes states as it wraps into a low pressure area northeast of Lake Superior. A patch of moderately dense smoke was over northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan and vicinity. Another branch of the smoke was seen over southern Quebec and the St Lawrence valley back to the southwest across the eastern Great Lakes, through Ohio and the Ohio Valley into Arkansas and east Texas and possibly along the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Much of this ribbon of smoke was moderately dense and also at high levels of the atmosphere. Alaska: An area of remnant smoke from the fires in Asia was seen extending along a northwest/southeast axis from western Alaska into the northern Gulf of Alaska. Arizona: Three large wildfires continue to burn this evening in the mountains of central Arizona. They are all generating smoke plumes that are moving to the north northeast. The largest/thickest smoke is coming from the Sunflower fire in Maricopa county and is producing areas of very dense smoke. Northwest Mexico: A broad area of light to moderately dense smoke covers much of Sonora, southwest Chihuahua, Sinaloa and western Durango. Blowing Dust: Southwest Nevada/Southern California: An area of light blowing dust was seen moving south along the border area of California/Nevada. Additional dust may be present along the Nevada/Utah border area but extensive cloud cover is hindering detection. Ruminski Previous discussion: Yukon/Northwest Territories through Central/Eastern Canada/US: A very large and very expansive area of high-level remnant smoke can be seen again this morning across a vast area from extreme northern Yukon and the Northwest Territories , extending southeast through much of central and eastern Canada and then into the Plains and Midwest/Great Lakes region of the U.S. This smoke is being generated from the numerous wildfires currently burning through portions of southern Siberia. While most of this smoke is light in nature, there are pieces that are moderately dense. Specifically, from northern/central Texas northeastward through the Midwest and eastern Great Lakes there is a band of more moderate smoke slowly moving eastward/southeastward. Further to the north through the northern Plains and southern/central Canada there are additional areas of moderately dense smoke. Central Arizona: An area of remnant smoke can be seen through central and western Arizona this morning and early afternoon. This is from the 3 large fires burning across this region over the past few days. Northern Mexico: Numerous fires continue to burn through Sonora, Chihuahua,Sinaloa and Durango over the past several days and are producing a rather large area of new and remnant smoke throughout this region. Blowing Dust Nevada/California: An area of remnant blowing dust that was seen in last evening's imagery can be seen moving towards the west/southwest this morning through portions of northwestern Nevada and into northeast/north-central California. -Belge 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