Thursday, May 29, 2014

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z May 30, 2014

Currently:
Northern Plains/Upper Mississippi Valley:
Numerous fires across E North Dakota, South Dakota and W Minnesota are
producing plumes of mostly light smoke moving north across the region.

Western US:
Smoke seen earlier today (mixed in with Asian Dust) has moved across
most of the W US including the states of Washington, Oregon, N and
C California, up through Nevada, Idaho and into Montana/S Canada.
The low level smoke along the western US coastline shows up well in
satellite imagery with higher level smoke farther east and now in S
British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

J Kibler

Earlier Today:

Smoke:
Canada:
Thin smoke has become strung out across N Canada from smoke output (likely
over the past 3-5days) from the Funny River Complex in the Kenai peninsula
of Alaska.   Cloudy conditions obscure smoke (even fire) detection across
much of Alaska, while clearing over much of Canada allows for it to be
tracked mainly going east with a large ridge over western and central
NW Territories.   Coverage is nearly total across Yukon Territory, bits
of far N BC, NW NW Territories (Big Bear Lake), nearly all of continental
Nunavut, a majority of Hudson Bay and some portions of far N Quebec.

A small area of what is suspected as  smoke (tied to Funny River) can
be seen over James Bay, NE Ontario, Far W Quebec... then south across
Huron and N Michigan.  Though in the low levels it appears that it may
be mostly thin/moderately dense fog likely due to cold water conditions
from ice melt over Huron, Georgian Bay and central Lake Michigan as well
as some pollutant aerosols and hazy conditions.

Western US:
Thin smoke from the Funny River fire (with some suspected contribution of
dust from Asia) that moved south over the past few days across the eastern
Gulf of Alaska and Canadian coastal zones.  Lower level smoke appears to
be sinking south and slightly west offshore of S California around 34N to
37N, while midlevel and jet-stream level can be seen across the southern
San Joaquin Valley, across central NV, central ID into the far SW of MT.

Aerosols:
Midwest/Great Plains:
A vast area of low level aerosols mixed with haze covers much of the
central US, some is quite dense in appearance. Moderate density covers
much of IA, N IL, N IN that is moving WNW and given this motion is likely
for the mass piling and increase in density.
Thinner density conditions are seen across central and eastern SD,
NE which are stationary or slowly moving N as well as over central and
eastern KS and OK into far N TX moving S on the western periphery of
the upper low.
A strip of moderate density that was not moving WNW, but instead
affected by the low, moving SW can be seen across N MO particularly,
NW MO, north of St. Louis connecting the larger WNW moving area above.

Gallina

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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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.