Friday, May 20, 2016

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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.