Tuesday, April 22, 2008

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z April 23, 2008

Florida:  There are several fires in central Florida producing light
to moderate smoke which is moving southeast across Lake Okeechobee.
There are also fires along the panhandle which are producing light smoke
which is moving into the Gulf of Mexico.

Georgia:  Numerous fires were detected throughout the day but weather
clouds have obscured much of the state.  There is a large fire in Muscogee
County with a plume extending as far south as Mills County.

Tennessee:  There were very few fires detected in Tennessee but there
was a large fire in east Pickett County producing moderate to heavy smoke.

Oklahoma:  There are many fires in northern Oklahoma which are producing
light smoke moving to the west.  The is a fire in Woods county which is
producing light to moderate smoke which is moving west into the panhandle
of the state.

Kansas:  The eastern 1/3rd of the state has many small fires, most
of which have thin to moderately dense smoke plumes emanating from
them. These individual plumes have conglomerated into a large area of
thin smoke that covers nearly all of eastern KS with a bit of smoke into
far northern OK.  A few individual fires across C KS, SW KS and NW KS
are producing thin smoke that are moving west including one (in Stanton
county) that extends into E CO.

Nebraska: Similar to KS, there are many small agricultural fires burning
across much of the state, though the fires are more spread apart than
their KS counterparts.  Similarly, they are also producing thin to
moderate smoke, but low level wind flow is a bit more complex over NE,
one the western side of a surface high pressure along the Missouri River.
The highest density of fires and concentration of smoke is across SE
Neb. ...the smoke is generally moving SW toward the KS boarder and into
south central Neb.   Thin smoke from fires across Cent and SW NE are
moving northward, while smoke across NCent and NE Neb. is moving NE.

Arizona:  A large fire in Northern Greenlee county is producing light to
moderately dense smoke which is moving NE into W New Mexico.  The plume
is about 50km long by 20km wide.

New Mexico:  A recent burst of dense smoke from the Trigo fire in central
NM was seen moving N to NNE but does not extend more than 25km yet as
it has recently reactivated.

Northern United States:  There is a moderate to dense band of unknown
consistency in the upper levels of the troposphere extending across much
of the the northern United States.  It is likely that the area consists
mainly of VOG from Hawaii as flow is out of the SW under the base of a
cutting off upperlevel cyclone off the US West Coast. However, it may
also be mixed with smoke from many large fires across E Russia or even
possibly pollution/haze from China.  Currently, area covers areas of the
following states: E ½ of MT, S ND, SD, N NE, Central and Southern MN,
all of WI and N IA.

Hawaii:  Volcanic ash, steam and gases (VOG) can be seen emanating from
Halema'uma'u and Pu'u'O'o craters of Kilauea though it is cloudy over the
area at this time. The VOG can be seen to the west of Kona, Big Island
and extends to the west in a 2-3 degree (of latitude) wide plume moving
within the easterly trades south of the other Hawai'ian islands.

Salemi/Gallina





 


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.