DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 19, 2016
SMOKE: US: A large weather system and its associated cloudiness was positioned over the middle of the US greatly limiting fire and smoke detection. On either side of this system, cloudiness was not as abundant and quite a few smoke plumes were visible over portions of the Southeastern and Eastern US as well as the Northwestern portion of the nation and southwestern Canada. Bay of Campeche/Western Gulf of Mexico/Southern Texas: Smoke from the ongoing seasonal burning in portions of Mexico and Central America once again could be seen in visible imagery over the Bay of Campeche extending northward into eastern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico with the leading edge likely into southern Texas though cloudiness in this region hindered specific information concerning the extent and the density of the smoke. DUST: Northwestern US/Southwestern Canada: Due to a rather stagnant weather pattern, possible thin density dust aloft was visible once again stretching from the southern portions of Saskatchewan and Alberta across western Montana and extending southward from there over Idaho and northern Nevada. This possible dust was still attributed to source regions in Asia according to aerosol/dust transport models. JS 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