Wednesday, June 19, 2013

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z June 20, 2013

SMOKE
Central US:
Dense smoke producing wildfires in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and
northern Sonora and Chihuahua are the source of the remnant light density
smoke plume that covers the central plains from east of the Rockies as
far as the Ohio River Valley.

Canada:
A broad, detached remnant smoke plume is seen stretching across portions
of Central and Northwestern Canada this evening from fires mainly located
in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  In eastern Canada, far west central Quebec
along James Bay lies one of the largest active wildfires today. It is
producing very dense remnant smoke moving off to the east. Remnant smoke
reaches over the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Alaska:
Large wildfires continue to burn in central Alaska. Moderate to very
dense remnant smoke is moving north and then west out over the Bering Sea.

DUST
Gulf of Mexico:
Saharan dust was observed this evening, stretching across the entire
central Gulf of Mexico moving west into southern Texas and Nuevo Leon,
Mexico.

Four Corner's States:
Strong southerly winds this afternoon and evening over the plains of
eastern New Mexico were generating an area of light to moderately dense
blowing dust that was also mixing with remnant smoke from the wildfires
in the region. The dust was moving to the north with the main source
area seeming to be in Chaves county.

Additional light to moderately dense blowing dust was seen originating
in northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico and moving to the northeast
across far southeast Utah and into southwest Colorado.

A separate area of light blowing dust was seen in northern Utah near Salt
Lake City and Provo that was moving to the south and another point source
along the north shore of the Great Salt Lake that generated blowing dust
that moved to the east.

Ramirez/Ruminski


THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS
OF 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.