DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 22, 2012

Southwestern United States/Northwestern Mexico:
Wildfires continue to burn across the Arizona and New Mexico and heavy
smoke is being produced.  Remnant smoke was viewed in much of northern
Arizona and western New Mexico.  A fire in Baja California (Mexico)
generated a heavy plume of smoke.  The fires in Sonora and Chihuahua
(Mexico) have not yet been extinguished and produced isolated pockets
of heavy smoke.

Canada:
Numerous wildfires in Quebec produced northward moving smoke tonight.
It is likely this smoke has mixed with Siberian smoke.

Missisippi River Valley:
Even though numerous fire points were detected, smoke was difficult to
analyze due to cloud cover.  It is likely to find localized smoky areas
in Louisiana and Mississippi along the Mississippi River.

-Myrga

THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT
AREAS 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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/hms.html
GIS:    http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm
KML:    http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov

Unless otherwise indicated:

Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.

Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.

A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.

Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.