DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z MAY 11, 2009
Western Gulf of Mexico/South Central Texas/Mexico: An extremely large mass of mainly thin smoke originating from numerous seasonal fires burning across Mexico and Central America covered much of Mexico, southern Baja, and areas offshore of the western and southern Mexican coast. The smoke also spread northward over the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico and into portions of southern and central Texas. Eastern Gulf of Mexico: The patch of leftover smoke seen earlier this morning was still visible lingering off the northwest coast of Cuba. Today's smoke plumes generated by fires over Cuba moved to the southwest. South Central Canada/Northern Plains: Numerous fires burning in southeastern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba Provinces of Canada produced many smoke plumes which combined to form a larger area of mainly thin smoke. The southern end of this smoke came very close to the US border around northern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Southern California: No smoke was visible during the day in satellite imagery from the fire burning near Santa Barbara. Low cloudiness from the marine layer likely hindered the detection of any smoke which this fire may still be producing. 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