DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z May 4, 2020
SMOKE:
North Central U.S./South Central Canada…
Seasonal fires scattered across western Minnesota, eastern and northern
North Dakota, along with the southern portions of Saskatchewan and
Manitoba in south central Canada produced numerous smoke plumes during
the day. The plumes north of the border were mainly of thin density with
the smoke plumes generally moving to the west and northwest. The smoke
across eastern North Dakota, western Minnesota, and far northeastern South
Dakota was more widespread with plumes merging to form larger patches
of smoke which was moderately dense in some areas. The smoke over the
north central U.S. moved mostly to the south and southwest. Farther
to the east, a swath of what is believed to be remnant smoke from the
previous day was seen extending from southern Minnesota and northern
Iowa eastward over southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois to far
northwestern Indiana and southwestern lower Michigan.
Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Central America/Pacific south of Mexico and
Central America…
The huge mass of varying density smoke from the ongoing tremendous
amount of seasonal burning occurring over southern and southeastern
Mexico and Central America covered this region as well as the Bay of
Campeche and southern Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific south of Mexico and
Central America. Thick smoke stretched from Honduras to the southwest
and off the coast of El Salvador and across southern Mexico and the
nearby Pacific off the south coast of Mexico. Additional moderate to
thick density smoke spread to the east and northeast from the Yucatan
Peninsula over the Bay of Campeche.
DUST:
Arizona/New Mexico…
A small amount of blowing dust was evident moving to the northeast from
a source in east central Arizona and from White Sands in south central
New Mexico.
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