DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z MAY 3, 2009
Gulf of Alaska: An area of thin smoke was seen extending from southeast Alaska near Juneau to the west into the Gulf of Alaska to near Kodiak Island. This is likely remnant smoke..possibly mixed with other aerosols..from fires burning recently in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Active fires in these provinces continue to burn today. Gulf of Mexico: The large mass of thin to moderately dense smoke emanating from the large number of seasonal fires burning in southeastern Mexico and Central America noted this morning continues to cover much of the southwest Gulf of Mexico. The smoke was mainly confined to an area south of 25N and west of 90W. There were patches of dense smoke near the north coast of the Yucatan peninsula. East Pacific: A broad area of light to moderately dense smoke due to a large number of agricultural fires in southwest Mexico was seen moving off the coast into the East Pacific. The smoke was most dense emanating from the state of Guerraro. Ruminski THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov