DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1515Z MAY 15, 2009
South Central Plains: An area of confluent flow, where low levels are pumping remnant smoke and haze from Yucatan and northern Central American fires off the western Gulf of Mexico across N TX, OK this morning, while midlevel (700-500mb) flow from the Mexican Plateau and fires in the states of Chihuahua and Durango across SE NM, the TX panhandle into OK. These two areas are mixed across both layers into S and E KS and E MO. Most of the smoke/haze is quite thin, except for a moderately dense area around the Prairie Dog Fork of the Red River in TX and the SW portions of OK...this pocket is likely an enhancement of smoke from a fire that emitted dense smoke last night in far southern Rio Arriba county just north of Los Alamos, NM. Gallina 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