DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE
IMAGERY THROUGH 0230Z, May 26, 2018.
SMOKE: New Mexico/Southern Colorado/Northwestern Texas... A large wildfire complex in the Gila Forest of west-central New Mexico produced a dense smoke plume which fanned out to the east across western and central New Mexico. A larger surrounding area of thin density smoke mainly from this fire spread across a good portion of the remainder of New Mexico as well as southern Colorado and northwestern Texas. Utah... A significant fire was detected during the afternoon in Piute County of south central Utah which produced a large moderately dense to thick smoke plume which fanned out and moved rapidly to the north and northeast with the leading edge of the smoke reaching into far southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming just before sunset. . Northeastern US/Mid-Atlantic/North Central US/Much of Canada... Wildfires scattered across western and central Canada from the southwest part of the Northwest Territories and British Columbia into Manitoba were emitting plumes of moderate to thick density during the afternoon with the newer smoke generally moving to the east. Residual smoke from these fires and other fires over south central Canada were responsible for a very large area of varying density remnant smoke. This area covers Canada from the southern Northwest Territories and eastern British Columbia through southern Quebec and southeast from there into New England and the Mid-Atlantic out over the open Atlantic. The southern edge of the smoke also has shifted southward over northern Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. . Mexico/Pacific Ocean... Seasonal fires were responsible for a large mass of thin to moderately dense smoke which covered much of southern Mexico and extended offshore to the south over the Pacific. A more narrow axis of smoke also stretched farther to the north over western and northwestern Mexico where fire activity has been more concentrated. DUST: Southwestern US... Rather subtle areas of blowing dust were noted resulting from locally strong gusty winds over west central and central Nevada, southern California near and south of the Salton Sea, far southeastern Nevada, and northwestern 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