DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z May 15, 2021
SMOKE:
North Central and Northeastern U.S./South Central and Southeastern
Canada…
A broad swath of remnant mainly thin density smoke attributed to recent
days of seasonal/agricultural fires over the North Central U.S. and
South Central Canada as well as a few larger possible wildfires in
southwestern Manitoba was seen this morning over portions of Minnesota
and North Dakota along with the northeastern part of South Dakota with
the smoke also extending up over southeastern Saskatchewan and southern
Manitoba. From there the smoke stretched to the east over southern Ontario
and southern Quebec as well as northern Michigan and portions of the
Northeastern U.S. before emerging off the Northeast U.S. coast. Embedded
within this large mass of thin density smoke was a stripe of moderate
to thick density smoke likely from the larger fires in southwestern
Manitoba. This stripe of thicker smoke was visible moving to the east
and southeast brushing the northeastern part of the U.P. of Michigan
and far northern lower Michigan and across southern Ontario, Lake Huron,
and eventually moving over western New York and Lake Ontario.
Mexico/Pacific south of Mexico…
A large area of thin to moderate density smoke from the ongoing seasonal
fire activity primarily occurring in portions of Mexico and northern
Central America was seen this morning over southwestern and southern
Mexico and extending well off the coast of southern Mexico over the
Pacific. A ribbon of thinner density smoke also appeared to extend
northward over central and even north central Mexico. Cloudiness was
significant enough over eastern and southeastern Mexico and over the
Bay of Campeche and portions of the southwestern Gulf of Mexico that it
greatly interfered with detection of any smoke which might be present
there.
DUST:
Area from just east of Puerto Rico to off the western Africa coast…
A large area of Saharan dust spreading to the west was visible this
morning across a sizable portion of the subtropical Atlantic stretching
from just east of Puerto Rico to the western coast of Africa.
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