DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 14, 2016
Bay of Campeche/Gulf of Mexico/Texas: Thin to moderately dense smoke associated with the ongoing seasonal burning in portions of southeastern Mexico and Central America was visible over the Bay of Campeche with thinner smoke across the western Gulf of Mexico and extending northward into at least the southern half of Texas. A band of thin density aerosol was also noted along a frontal boundary extending farther to the east across the northern Gulf of Mexico which may contain some residual smoke though uncertainty exists. Southeastern Canada/Northern New England: The persistent batch of smoke attributed to wildfires burning this week in Canada was likely still present stretching from southeastern Quebec across northern New England and offshore over the Atlantic though cloudiness passing across this region this afternoon interfered with smoke detection in satellite imagery. Canada/North Central US: Significant smoke continued to emanate from the wildfire located near Ft. McMurray in eastern Alberta with moderately dense to thick smoke extending southward over portions of eastern and southeastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan to near the north central Montana border. Thinner smoke from this fire extended much farther to the southeast over eastern Montana and the western Dakotas. The smoke may extend even farther to the south and east though cloudiness over the north central and central US is interfering with this information from satellite imagery. Another large area of primarily thin density smoke was seen moving to the south and southwest from the Northwest Territories and Nanavut over the western portion of Hudson Bay, northern Manitoba as well as northern and central Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. This smoke was believed to be from Siberia and has been transported to the north of Alaska and over the polar region before spreading back to the south. Some of this smoke has also now moved over some of the same locations affected by smoke from the Ft. McMurray fire. JS Earlier This Morning... SMOKE: A large area of thin to moderate density smoke covered a large portion of the Central United States extending from the Northern Plains south towards Texas. The smoke also extended northwest from the Northern Plains through southwest Saskatchewan and most of Alberta to the southern Northwest Territories. An area of moderate to dense smoke was over much of eastern Alberta with a source region of the fire near Fort McMurray. Source region from the smoke further north over the Northwest Territories appeared to be from fire activity over Siberia. The source region from smoke further south over Texas and the Southern Plains appeared to be from fire activity over Mexico. An area of thin to moderate density smoke with a source region from fires over Alberta also extended from the Northwest Atlantic northwest through Maine and into southern Quebec. Hanna 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