DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1515Z May 17, 2015
Northwestern Canada: A relative large area of remnant light-density smoke was observed using early morning visible satellite imagery situated over Yukon, western and central portions of the Northwest Territories, northern British Columbia and northern Alberta provinces in western Canada. Some of the smoke survived the transpacific path from Asia, while new smoke has been infused into this plume from yesterday's Stuart Inert wildfire located in east-central Alaska. British Columbia: A cluster of large wildfires burning across portions of central British Columbia in western Canada continues to produce light to moderate dense smoke. Remnant smoke can be seen farther to the southwest of these fires, approaching Vancouver Island, that became detached from the source overnight. Western Gulf of Mexico: Another large area of light density remnant smoke was seen over the western Gulf of Mexico drifting toward the north this morning. This area of remnant smoke is believed to have originated from seasonal burning in Central America. Eastern Gulf of Mexico: A rather small and elongated aerosol of thin density is analyzed this morning off the western peninsula of Florida. It is believed to be remnant smoke from the Mud Lake Complex wildfire in southwestern Florida. Warren 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