Tuesday, May 15, 2024

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