DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1705Z May 15, 2024
SMOKE: Canada/North Central and Northeastern United States/Atlantic Ocean... Numerous large wildfires located throughout portions of Canada from the southern regions of the Northwest Territories and northeast British Columbia to the central regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba continued to burn and grow in size. Due to the large amount of ongoing wildfires and recently developed ones throughout these areas, a very large mass of smoke ranging from light to thick density covered a majority of southern Canada, extending eastward along the Canadian and U.S. border into Manitoba where it began dispersing in two different directions, where it extended north, covering the majority of Manitoba, and then it was seen extending southeast into Ontario, Quebec and the Great Lakes region of the United States. Light density smoke continued south from the Great Lakes region into the southeast U.S. as far as Arkansas. The thickest density smoke continues to be seen surrounding the larger fires located in the northeast corner of British Columbia, north-central Alberta, eastern Alberta, east-central Saskatchewan and west-central Manitoba. Areas of moderate smoke were also seen covering portions of north-central Canada, north-central U.S. and the Great Lakes regions, however, a large amount of cloud cover throughout these regions are most likely concealing thicker density smoke. AEROSOL/SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico/Yucatan Peninsula/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, the Yucatan Peninsula, Central America and northern South America was observed this morning from the Gulf of Mexico, northeast through Florida and extending east into the northern Atlantic Ocean. The large area aerosol/smoke continued expanding through the Caribbean sea, Cuba, Jamaica, central-southern Mexico, Central America and into the Pacific Ocean off the southwest coastlines of Mexico and Central America. Areas of higher density smoke and aerosols were observed over northern Central America, the Yucatan Peninsula 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