Thursday, June 21, 2012

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z June 22, 2012

Four Corners:
New smoke from several wildfires burning in Arizona/New Mexico/Colorado
and northern Mexico is mixing with remnant smoke from the past several
days to cover much of eastern Arizona, Utah, western Colorado and most
of New Mexico. Some smoke is also moving into southwest Wyoming. The
eastern edge of this smoke is difficult to locate as it becomes more
diffuse over West Texas and western Oklahoma.

Mid Atlantic into New England:
Remnant smoke from the large wildfire in the West has moved to the East
Coast in the mid Atlantic, New York and western New England and mixed
with a large area of haze in the region, making the distinction between
the haze area and smoke difficult to define. There is likely additional
smoke caught up in a frontal boundary from the mid Mississippi river
valley and the Ohio river valley and into the southern Great Lakes.

Eastern Canada:
Numerous fires burning over far eastern Labrador for the past several
days has produced an area of smoke swirling over the region and just
reaching the St Lawrence river valley.

South Central Canada:
An area of light remnant smoke from fires burning in northwest Canada
has settled south and lies along a path from central Alberta to southern
Saskatchewan.

Alaska and Northwest Territories:
Several wildfires burning over the northern Alaska, the Yukon and western
Northwest Territories have produced an area of smoke that covers much
of northern Alaska, northern Yukon and northwest Northwest Territories.

Blowing Dust:
California/Nevada/Arizona:
Several sources of blowing dust were noted. The most prominent was in
northeast California north of Lake Tahoe with a moderate to dense dust
plume moving east into northwest Nevada. Other areas of lighter dust were
seen over the deserts of southern California and around the Salton Sea.

Southwest New Mexico/northern Chihuahua:
An north/south arc of blowing dust was straddling the New Mexico/Chihuahua
border and moving to the west, nearly reaching the Arizona border
by sunset.

Ruminski

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.