Friday, May 8 2015

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z May 08, 2015

SMOKE:
Southwestern Canada:
A relatively large area of remnant Asian smoke seen last night in visible
imagery across Alberta and Northwest Territories has drifted southward
towards the U.S/Canadian border. The smoke is currently seen over southern
British Columbia, southern Alberta, and southwestern Saskatchewan. The
abundant cloud cover across the northwestern U.S. and southwestern Canada
makes the full extent of the remnant smoke difficult to discern.

South-Central U.S/Western Gulf of Mexico:
An area of light to moderate density smoke is seen originating from the
large amount of fires occurring across much of Mexico. This area of smoke
is seen across much of the Bay of Campeche/western Gulf of Mexico and
extends northward over Louisiana and Texas, as far as the Texas panhandle.

BLOWING DUST:
Southwestern U.S:
Suspended dust is seen across much of the southwestern U.S, extending over
the eastern Pacific and northwestern Mexico into southern California and
further inland over much of Arizona and western New Mexico. While models
suggest that this plume of dust extends farther out over the Pacific
Ocean, suggesting that it has been transported with the associated upper
level low pressure system currently over California, strong surface winds
have kicked up more localized areas of blowing dust seen in southern
California near the Salton Sea.

Heeps

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.