Sunday, January 1, 2006

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z January 2, 2006

New Mexico/Texas/Oklahoma:
Visible imagery through late afternoon/early evening showed a very large
area of blowing dust/sand combined with smoke from intense wildfires which
covered the region including far eastern New Mexico, western and northern
Texas, much of central and eastern Oklahoma, and even southeastern
Kansas. This area of blowing dust/sand and smoke had spread across places
such as Lubbock, Wichita Falls, Abilene, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Waco in
Texas as well as Oklahoma City and Tulsa in Oklahoma. Strong westerly
and southwesterly winds around a low pressure system developing in Kansas
were fanning wildfires and also kicking up the cloud of dust/sand.

The thickest smoke plumes were originating from several fires across
western and central Texas, including ones over southern Sterling County,
the border region of Irion/Reagan Counties, and Eastland County. The
thick smoke plumes from these fires had spread well to the east and
northeast reaching metro Dallas-Ft. Worth by early evening. Some
of the blowing dust/sand had also spread across the Dallas-Ft. Worth
region. Other fires across Lea County of eastern New Mexico and several
counties of the western Texas panhandle between Midland and Lubbock also
were producing visible smoke plumes for a time. However, the presence
of blowing dust/sand eventually made it difficult to differentiate
between the two. Another fire spreading from Clay into Montague County
of northern Texas was emitting a significant smoke plume which had
blown northeastward into southern Oklahoma. Finally, long narrow smoke
plumes were spreading northeastward from fires across Logan, Lincoln,
and Creek Counties of central Oklahoma.

JS

 


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.