DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z May 31, 2012
Canada: An area of thin-density smoke, possibly mixed with dust from fires in Asia, could be seen across the Northwest Territories into Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba/Ontario this evening. A strip of medium-density smoke was present over northeast Alberta into Saskatchewan, near the vicinity of a few wildfires that have been burning over the past few days. Colorado: The Sunrise Mine and Little Sand wildfires in Colorado continue to emit mainly light-to-moderately dense smoke this evening. This smoke is moving mainly south/southeast into northern New Mexico. South-Central US/Mexico: An expansive area of smoke can be seen stretching from northwest Mexico/New Mexico through the central US and across the southeastern US tonight. Within this vast area are various thicknesses of smoke. The most dense can be seen emitting from the Baldy-Whitewater fire in New Mexico and extending across the central and southern portion of the state. Medium-density smoke extends further into north-central Texas and could be seen wrapping up in the convection that formed across Texas/Oklahoma/southern Kansas. Thin-density smoke extends even further across much of the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern US states into the Atlantic Ocean, still getting embedded in Beryl's circulation. Mexico: Numerous fires could be seen burning across northwest Mexico today. Some of the northern most fires were emitting moderate amounts of medium-density smoke which extended eastward towards the southwest Texas border. The lighter smoke from these fires extends across southern Texas into the western Gulf, blending in with the copious amounts of smoke from the Baldy-Whitewater fire that have been traveling eastward. 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