DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z May 8, 2016
SMOKE: South-Central Canada/Central and Southeast US An expansive area of light density smoke mostly from a wildfire in Alberta spans from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba southeast through the Northern Plains and Great Lakes with more diffuse smoke seen throughout the Southern Plains and US Southeast. Moderate density smoke can be seen moving south in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, stretched east-west along a deformation zone in the Northern Plains and traveling southeastward towards the mid-Atlantic and Northeast behind a cold front. A long detached plume of heavy density smoke associated with a significant wildfire in northeast Alberta extends from southern Manitoba into southwest Wisconsin. Although extensive cloud cover currently covers the Wildfire near Fort McMurray a hotspot could be seen in shortwave IR in-between cloud cover just west or near Gipsy Lake Wildland. Another wildfire that began near Beresford Lake along the Manitoba/Ontario border has expanded further southeastward into Ontario according to shortwave IR. A pronounced heavy density smoke plume could be seen emanating from the wildfire towards the southeast and spanned from western Ontario to the Arrowhead of Minnesota. -Cronin 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