DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z May 20, 2016
SMOKE: South Central and Eastern Canada/Northern Central and Northeast US: An area of light to moderately dense residual smoke is moving east across a large section of the northern US/southern/eastern Canada. An area of moderately dense smoke is seen extending across eastern North Dakota, northwest Minnesota and southern Manitoba/southeast Ontario. Another large section of moderately dense smoke spreads across southwest Quebec, into northern/central New York, into the northern edges of the Mid Atlantic, most of Northeast US and into far eastern Canada. Another small sections is west of St. James Bay. Light residual smoke extends from northeast Montana, southeast Saskatchewan east across southern sections of Manitoba, Ontario, southwest Quebec and into the Northeast, and up along the eastern Canadian coast. The smoke also spreads into the Atlantic Ocean. Two small areas of smoke are seen extending across sections of northeast Alberta and northern sections of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Northeast Alaska/Beaufort Sea: An area of residual smoke from the Siberian wildfires which moved across sections of northern/central Alaska last night can be seen moving across a large area of the Beaufort Sea. Smoke may extend farther west into northern/central Alaska, but weather clouds obscure the full view.. Texas Coast/Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche: A significant amount of thin smoke is present over portions of the southwestern Gulf of Mexico becoming mostly thin across central portions of the Gulf. Much of this smoke is from agricultural burning in Mexico and Central America. J Kibler/Boll 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