Monday, June 20, 2016

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z June 21 2016

SMOKE:
Southwest US:
Several wildfires burning from eastern Arizona into central New Mexico
have produced a broad area of mostly moderately dense to areas of dense
residual smoke that have traveled into southeast Nevada and now cover
most of Utah. Wildfires continue to produce light to heavy density smoke
in central Arizona and southern California.  The smoke being produced
in southern California is fanning eastward while the smoke in Arizona
is traveling to the north in northern Arizona and west in eastern Arizona.

Central Plains:
An area of light density remnant smoke was noted across the Central Plains
slowly drifting east.  This area of smoke likely originated from wildfires
in the US Southwest.  This area of smoke may extend eastward although
cloud coverage limits the ability to observe smoke over the Midwest and
Mississippi River Valley where multiple agricultural/prescribed burns
were in shortwave IR.

Western and Central Canada:
A ribbon of light to moderate density remnant smoke is seen moving
southeast and spans from northern/central British Columbia east through
northern/central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, central Manitoba to the
Manitoba/Ontario border. This area of smoke originated from wildfire
activity over central Alaska and diffuse residual smoke from Siberia
possibly mixed in.

Northwest Territories:
Two light to moderate density smoke plumes were seen emitting to the east
from wildfires southwest of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories.

-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.