DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 18, 2016
SMOKE: South and Central Canada/Northern Plains: A large area of residual smoke, light to moderate in density, from the Alberta and British Columbia wildfires is visible from northern Alberta moving east through Saskatchewan, Manitoba, western Ontario and heading south through eastern Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, western Wisconsin,NE Wyoming, Nebraska and northern Iowa. The full extent of the smoke is obscured by heavy cloud coverage. Those wildfires in eastern British Columbia are currently producing moderately dense to dense smoke moving w-ward into northwest Alberta. The wildfire near Fort McMurray continues to emit moderately dense to dense smoke into Saskatchewan with traces of dense smoke fanning out north and south of the wildfire. Gulf of Mexico: Light smoke is over the southern and central Gulf of Mexico; the smoke originates from agricultural burning in Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula and Central America. -FCS 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