DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 6, 2016
SMOKE: Western to Central Canada/North Central US to Southeastern US: A very extensive area of smoke associated mainly with the destructive wildfires burning near Ft. McMurray in eastern Alberta and a few additional wildfires in far western Alberta and eastern British Columbia was visible covering a large portion of the area stretching from western to south central Canada and extending southward over the North Central and Central US to the Southeastern US as far southeast as southern Georgia and northern Florida. While much of the area was covered by mostly thin to moderate density smoke, very thick smoke was noted near the actual fires and downwind to the east of the fires in western Canada. Additional widely scattered seasonal fires with localized thin density smoke plumes were visible as well over south central Canada, the North Central and Central US, and the Southeastern states. DUST: Southwestern US/Northwestern Mexico: Gusty winds kicked up several patches of thin to locally thicker density blowing dust across the interior of far southern California, far northern Baja, northwestern Mexico, as well as western and north central Arizona. The thickest dust appeared to originate from source regions north of Flagstaff AZ and spread northward into southern Utah late in the day. 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