DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 21, 2019
SMOKE:
Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Central America/Pacific off the coast of Mexico
and Central America...
Multiple large areas of varying density smoke from ongoing fire activity
across Mexico and Central America was visible today across much of that
region with the moderate density smoke also spreading northward over
the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico and into far southern
Texas. Thinner density smoke did appear to make it farther inland over
much of the southern half of Texas though cloudiness interfered with
smoke detection farther to the north over Texas. Thin to moderately
dense smoke also extended to the south and off the southern coast of
Mexico and Central America.
Western Canada...
Several large wildfires continue to burn across central and northern
Alberta resulting in thick smoke plumes which fanned out as they spread to
the north and northwest across northwestern Alberta, northeastern British
Columbia, and the southwestern portion of the Northwest Territories. The
smoke then shifted more to the east across Great Slave Lake and the
southern part of the Northwest Territories. It is not known how far east
the some extends over the Northwest Territories toward the western part
of Hudson Bay due to cloud cover in that region.
DUST:
Southern and Eastern New Mexico/Western Texas/Northern Mexico...
Gusty winds from the west and southwest were kicking up a rather
significant swath of blowing dust which emanated primarily from sources
in the northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, and southern New
Mexico. The dust then spread quickly to the east and northeast across
western Texas (including El Paso), and southeastern New Mexico likely
reaching across the Texas border to the west of Midland and Lubbock
though cloud cover was restricting additional information on the dust
from satellite imagery
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/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS: ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO:
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov