Sunday, June 19, 2016

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z June 20 2016

SMOKE:
Southwest US/Central and Southern Plains/Middle and Upper Mississippi
Valley/Great Lakes:
Several wildfires burning from eastern Arizona into central New Mexico
have produced a broad area of light residual smoke that has drifted into
the Southern/Central Plains, Middle and Upper Mississippi Valley and
into the Great Lakes region.  Light smoke is spreading east/north from
eastern Texas north through central/eastern Oklahoma, Kansas, eastern
Nebraska and into most of Missouri and Illinois, Iowa, southern/central
Minnesota, most of Wisconsin/Michigan,  Indiana and the western half
of Ohio. Agricultural and prescribed burns in the Middle Mississippi
River Valley produced light density smoke which has traveled northeast
and mixed in with this area of remnant smoke.  Currently, the wildfires
burning over Arizona, New Mexico and southern California continue to
produce moderately dense to dense smoke that is primarily moving west. The
Cedar wildfire in east-central Arizona is producing an impressive plume
of moderate to heavy density smoke.

Northwest Territories/Alberta:
A ribbon of light to moderate density remnant smoke was seen moving
southeast and spanned from northwest Alberta northeast into the Northwest
Territories over Great Slave Lake and into western Nunavut.  This area of
smoke originated from wildfire activity over central Alaska and possibly
across Siberia.

Yukon:
Two wildfires were seen southeast of Grey Hunter Peak producing light
to heavy density smoke plumes traveling towards the east.

DUST:
Texas/Gulf of Mexico:
A stream of light density Saharan dust was seen spanning from Cuba
west-northwest across the Gulf of Mexico into southeast Texas before
mixing with smoke originating from wildfires in the US Southwest.

-Cronin

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.