DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z APRIL 10, 2009
Central to Southern Plains/Lower and Middle Mississippi Valley: Residual thin remnant smoke and blowing dust was still seen this morning wrapping around the western side of an area of low pressure. The smoke stretched from west central Kansas southeastward to central Oklahoma. South of there, active wildfires were still burning in south central Oklahoma and north central Texas. The moderately dense smoke plumes from these fires were moving in a south-southeast direction, extending well to the south across central Texas. A larger mass of smoke from the TX/OK wildfires as well as leftover blowing dust was seen in morning visible satellite imagery across southern and southeastern Texas extending northeastward into the lower and middle Mississippi Valley. Cloudiness interfered with the detection of some of this residual smoke/blowing dust in this region. For more information concerning the smoke forecast refer to the National Weather Service Air Quality website... http://www.nws.noaa.gov/aq/sectors/conus.php Gulf of Mexico: Thin smoke from the ongoing seasonal fires burning in Mexico and Central America spread northward into the western Gulf of Mexico to just off the Louisiana coast by mid morning. JS 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