Thursday, May 24, 2012

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z May 25, 2012

Smoke:
Whitewater/Baldy output:
Yesterday's Whitewater/Baldy wildfire in New Mexico covers a very large
portion of the central US into the Great Lakes.  This is particularly
dense across NE TX, AR, N MS, W TN, W KY, MO, and IL.  Thin to moderate
smoke can be tracked ahead of strong cold front moving into WI, covering
Lake Superior into Central Ontario. Further south wind flow is a bit
slower and anticyclonic over TX and LA lead to very slow movement E and
mixing with Mexician fire output across the south.

Canada:
Numerous large wildfires erupted across far E Ontario and the southern
woodlands of Quebec.  Please see graphic and GIS web pages... but thin
smoke from yesterday's output of the largest fire in western Quebec
may be traced across C Quebec into western Labrador/Quebec province
line...moving toward the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Central Gulf of Mexico to Tampa Bay:
A very narrow (less than 20km wide) filament of high level smoke showed
up at the very end of the day with high sun angle, was seen extending
from Tampa Bay SW to 25N85W then more westward to 23.5N90W.  This was
likely thin smoke from Mexican fires emitted a few days ago.

Western Gulf of Mexico:
Numerous fires across Southern Mexico/N Central America continue to pump
out a large area of thin smoke that drifts north across the Western Gulf
west of 90W eventually affecting coastal Texas and Louisiana in the low
levels (likely surface to the boundary layer inversion).

Mexican Fires:
Remnant moderate to dense smoke from yesterday's emission continues to
drape under weak flow across S Baja California to the Big Bend of Texas
(as far north as I-10) where it begins to meld with smoke from the
Whitewater/Baldy fire complex.  This area has been lifting north slowly.


Dust/Sand:
Northern California:
Transported Asian dust can be seen drifting south ahead of cyclone moving
south along the Pacific NW coast.  The area covers northern CA into NW
NV from San Francisco to Reno northward to the Oregon state line.

Illinois/Wisconsin:
Very strong southerly winds in advance of cold front draped from deeping
low over N MN has lead to thin to moderate N-S oriented rolls of blowing
dust/soils seen across much of Central IL and N IL... particularly across
sources in Mason and Tazewell counties... though more subtle features
could be seen out of McLean, DeKalb, Ford, Grundy counties before high
clouds and smoke from the Whitewater/Baldy fires moved in around 23z.

Mexico:
Sonora:
Coastal deserts along the Gulf of California are the sources of large
moderately dense dust/sand storm moving nearly due north cover a large
portion of the state and beginning to affect S AZ across Pima and W
Santa Cruz counties.

N Chihuahua:
The deserts and salt flats of far northern Chihuahua have kicked up
thin to moderate density plume that is about 50km wide covers El Paso
to Hobbs NM covering a large portion of the West TX panhandle and SE NM.

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

 


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.