Friday, May 20, 2016

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 21, 2016

SMOKE:
West Central to Southeastern Canada/North Central to Northeastern US:
Cloudiness covered portions of western Canada limiting views of the
active ongoing fires there. However, a large amount of smoke farther to
the east and southeast was observed which was believed to be primarily
from the fire in Alberta near Ft. McMurray and just over the border in
Saskatchewan. This smoke of varying density including significant patches
of moderately dense to thick smoke extended eastward across portions of
south central and southeastern Canada as well as portions of the north
central and northeastern US with the thickest smoke over the US detected
over central and eastern North Dakota, Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin,
Lake Superior, and the western portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The
smoke also extended offshore of southeastern Canada and the northeastern
US over the Atlantic.

Bay of Campeche/Western Gulf of Mexico/Texas:
Moderately dense smoke from the ongoing seasonal burning occurring
in southeastern Mexico and Central America was present over the Bay
of Campeche during the day. Farther to the north, thinner density
smoke possibly mixed with other aerosols was seen over the western and
northwestern Gulf of Mexico with the smoke extending into at least the
southern half of Texas.

Northern Alaska/Arctic Ocean:
A thin density aerosol which is believed to be remnant smoke from the
Siberian fires was visible over far northern Alaska and the Beaufort Sea.

DUST:
Nevada:
Just before sunset, a swath of relatively thick blowing dust could be seen
on the western edge of an area of cloudiness emanating from sources in
west central Nevada spreading to the east and northeast across central
and north central Nevada. The cloudiness in this region did interfere
with additional information on the extent of the dust.

Southern California/Southwestern Arizona:
A streak of moderately dense to thick blowing dust originated during
the afternoon from a source primarily on the south side of the Salton
Sea in southern California and moved to the east and southeast reaching
southwestern Arizona just before sunset. Much thinner density blowing
dust extended farther to the east over south central Arizona.

JS


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.