DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z MAY 18, 2020
SMOKE:
North Central U.S./South Central Canada…
A significant amount of seasonal fire activity was detected over western
Minnesota, eastern and northern North Dakota, southeastern Saskatchewan,
and southern Manitoba resulting in many smoke plumes of thin to locally
moderate density which spread to the west, northwest, and north during
the day with some of the plumes merging to form larger patches of
smoke. In addition, the wildfire in central Saskatchewan continues to
burn and is likely producing smoke though cloud cover over the fire did
prevent much in the way of smoke detection in satellite imagery. Another
possible wildfire in southwestern Manitoba was emitting moderately dense
to thick smoke which moved off to the northeast. A broad area of thin
to moderately dense remnant smoke from the seasonal fires and wildfires
was visible circulating around an area of high pressure covering central
and southern Ontario and roughly the northern half of Minnesota.
Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Central America…
Smoke of varying density from the ongoing very large amount of seasonal
fire activity occurring in portions of Mexico and Central America was
seen over much of central and southern Mexico, Central America, the
Bay of Campeche, and the western Gulf of Mexico. Embedded more dense
smoke plumes and larger areas of smoke were noted within this bigger
encompassing region of smoke with the thickest smoke appearing over
southern Mexico. Cloud cover from developing thunderstorms did overspread
much of southern and southeastern Mexico and a portion of Central America
during the afternoon which limited additional information on the extent
and density of the smoke.
DUST:
Oregon…
A swath of moderately dense blowing dust originated from a source in
south central Oregon and moved quickly to the northeast during the
late afternoon.
Nevada/Utah/Arizona…
Areas of blowing dust were likely occurring across a good portion
of Nevada and western and northern Utah, possibly spreading to the
northeast over southern Idaho though thin cloud cover greatly interfered
with dust detection in satellite imagery. More dust may also be present
over northwestern Arizona and southwestern Utah but thicker cloud cover
there totally prevented detection in 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