DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z May 17, 2012
Canada/North-Central US/New England: A large area of high-level remnant smoke, that originated from multiple Siberian fires, can been seen across British Columbia and northwest Washington this afternoon. This smoke extends northeastward into northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories, then extends southeastward across Saskatchewan/Manitoba and into the north-central US. The smoke has been slowly tracking eastward across New York behind a surface frontal boundary. Within the broad area of thin-density smoke is an area of medium-density aerosol located across northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and extends northward into Canada. Arizona/New Mexico: Three large wildfires continue to burn in central Arizona today. These fires have produced mainly medium-density smoke with the exception of the Gladiator fire (western-most fire) which produced thick-density smoke when it flared this afternoon. The smoke has been blowing mainly to the east-northeast and extending into western New Mexico Mexico: An area of thin-density smoke is visible across Sonora/Sinaloa/Chihuahua/Durango states in Mexico. This is due to the many active fires in the area. There is also a large fire that can be seen burning in northern Baja California. The smoke from this fire is blowing mainly to the south. South Central US/Southeast/Middle Atlantic: A region of aerosol extends from eastern Texas and the western Gulf of Mexico northeastward across a portion of the Southeast to the Middle Atlantic region. This aerosol may contain a bit of remnant smoke, but it is not known how much of the aerosol is composed of smoke so it was not included in the graphics on the web sites listed below. Vogt 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