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