May 8, 2016
The fire that devastated Fort McMurray in the Canadian province of Alberta generated pyrocumulus clouds that lofted smoke high in the atmosphere. Winds then transported plumes of this smoke long distances. On May 8, 2016, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi-NPP satellite captured an image of northwesterly winds pushing smoke over North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. The smoke triggered warnings about unhealthy air in these states.
References & Resources
- Alberta Government (2016, May 8) Update 8: Fort McMurray Wildfire (May 8 at 4:15 p.m.) Accessed May 9, 2016.
- The Weather Channel (2016, May 7) Wildfires in Minnesota Shroud Area with Smoke, Prompting Air Quality Warnings. Accessed May 9, 2016.
- University of Wisconsin-Madison CIMSS PyroCb (2016, May 3) Fort McMurray, Alberta wildfire. Accessed May 9, 2016.
- Weather Underground (2016, May 5) The Fort McMurray Disaster: Getting Beyond “Is It Climate Change?”./a> Accessed May 9, 2016.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response . Caption by Adam Voiland.
