DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1400Z April 22, 2015
SMOKE Early morning visible imagery continues to show the very large areal coverage of thin smoke (with bands of moderately dense smoke) within the mid-to-high levels originating from large fire complexes SE of Lake Baikal toward the Mongolian boarder in S Siberian Russia. The areal coverage is nearly 1/2-2/3rds of the continental US as well as much of Central and Northern Canadian providences and territories. Smoke free skies are limited to areas affected by the large polar low over James Bay extending into the eastern Great Lakes and New England and areas south of the frontal zone draped across the Red River of OK/TX into TN and NC (and south, and south eastward). A small area of “clean air” also has been brought into coastal zones of WA, OR and N CA. Thin to light smoke covers central, southern CA and AZ as it has fully encircled and embedded within the low over S CA. The main streamer of moderately dense smoke is seen in the main polar jet that originates at the top of the ridge over the Yukon Territory/W NW Territories, dropping south across E Alberta/W Saskatchewan into E MT/W ND, across SD, NE NEB, IA, NE MO, IL and S IL. This fades out across S OH, KY and VA before increasing in density over the Atlantic Ocean from Delaware to just SE of Long Island/Cape Cod. 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