DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z MAY 24, 2020
SMOKE: North Central U.S./South Central Canada… Seasonal fire activity was scattered across northwestern Minnesota, eastern and northern North Dakota, and the southern portions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Numerous smoke plumes of thin to locally moderate density were visible moving mainly to the north over eastern North Dakota with a number of the plumes merging to form a larger patch of smoke by late in the day. Farther to the north, a few smoke plumes of thin to locally moderate density were seen over southeastern Saskatchewan which quickly moved to the east-northeast crossing over southwestern Manitoba by later in the afternoon. Southeastern Colorado… The Cherry Canyon Fire in southeastern Colorado was producing moderate to thick density smoke which moved to the northeast during the day with the leading edge of the thinner density smoke reaching the border with southwestern Kansas by early evening. Far Southern Texas/Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Central America/Pacific south of Mexico… The ongoing large amount of seasonal fire activity occurring in portions of Mexico and Central America continued to produce significant amounts of smoke which impacted central, southern, and eastern Mexico, portions of Central America, the Bay of Campeche, the western Gulf of Mexico, far southern Texas, and the Pacific south of Mexico. The thickest smoke was observed over southern Mexico and the nearby Pacific off the southern coast. Moderate to thick density smoke blanketed southeastern and eastern Mexico and the Bay of Campeche. A bit more scattered fire activity over western Mexico resulted in a number of varying density smoke plumes which generally moved to the east. 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