DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1805Z May 13, 2024
SMOKE: British Columbia/Northwest Territories/Alberta/Saskatchewan... Numerous large wildfires located in the northeast corner of British Columbia and along the southern border of the Northwest Territories that have been active for several days now were observed producing large plumes of thick density smoke that were seen blowing eastward in direction. These large plumes eventually extended eastward into Alberta and Saskatchewan, dispersing into a large area of light to moderate smoke that extended southeastward into the north-central and Great Lakes region of the United States, extending as far east as Vermont. This mass continued moving south along the east coast and eventually reached as far south as Virginia. Oregon... A light density smoke plume was observed emanating from a suspected wildfire located in the south central region of Oregan, it was seen dispersing slightly westward in direction. This suspected fire was present yesterday as well. AEROSOL/SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico/Coastal Atlantic/Caribbean Sea/Central-Southern Mexico/Central America/Pacific Ocean... A large area of predominantly light to moderate density smoke attributed to widespread seasonal fire activity throughout central-southern Mexico, Central America and northern South America was observed this morning from the Gulf of Mexico, northeast along the Coastal Atlantic and extending east into the northern Atlantic Ocean. The large area aerosol/smoke continued expanding through the western portion of the Caribbean sea, central-southern Mexico, Central America and into the Pacific Ocean off the southwest coastlines of Mexico and Guatemala. Areas of higher density smoke and aerosols were observed over northern Central America and the Gulf of Mexico. Aerosols from a composite of volcanic emissions and industrial sources in Mexico, and gas flaring activity in the Bay of Campeche contributed to the expansive area of aerosol/smoke observed throughout these regions today. Willkens 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 map: https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg Smoke data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Smoke_Polygons Fire data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Fire_Points ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov