DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z May 5, 2016
SMOKE: Western/Central Canada/northern and central Plains: Dangerous large wildfires continue to rage over northeast British Columbia and northern Alberta this afternoon and evening. These fires, especially the out of control fire ravaging Ft McMurray, are producing a tremendous amount of smoke that is moving to the east across northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The smoke then takes a sharp turn to the south across much of Manitoba and continuing into the northern and central Plains, covering much of the Dakotas, western Minnesota and portions of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. The very dense smoke is over and near the fire and Ft McMurray. Another area of moderate to dense smoke from yesterday's burning covered much of central and southern Manitoba, northwest Minnesota and northeast North Dakota. Gulf of Mexico: Smoke from the seasonal burning in Mexico and Central America has been shunted to the south due to a cold front dropping across the Gulf. The smoke is confined to the southwest Gulf in the Bay of Campeche eastward to the northwest portion of Cuba. Ruminski/Sandusky 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