Saturday, July 11, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0111Z July 12, 2009

Update for Sand/Dust below:

Oklahoma/N Texas/Arkansas:
A large pocket of moderately dense smoke from yesterday's output from
the NW OK fires continues to expand in the upper levels of the atmosphere
nearly directly under the center of the ridge across the southern plains.
The shape consists of an upside-down 'U' with a filament of thin smoke
extending west across W OK into the E portions of the TX panhandle.
The main 'U' extends between Eastland/Comanche county in TX NE to Latimer
county OK then ESE to Desha/Arkansas county in AR then curves S along
the Mississippi river.

Eastern Canada:
Thin to moderately dense smoke from the past few days over N Quebec
and W and Central Labrador has continued to drift SE just NE of the
Newfoundland coast line but a thin area of thin smoke connected the
western portion of this line to the other area that hugged the western
coast of Newfoundland and covered the Cabot Strait and the N tip of Nova
Scotia, this line has been fading throughout the day.  A new fire in SW
Newfoundland produced moderately dense smoke that moved over the western
half of the island mixing with these older areas.

N Canada:
Thin low level smoke from the NE AK fires over the past few days has
remained on the western periphery of the large cyclone over W Hudson Bay
covering much of E NWT and all of continental Nunavut.  The stronger winds
over N Manitoba continue to pull the smoke southward into N Manitoba but
large amounts of cloudy conditions make it difficult to fully track this
smoke further south.


British Columbia to Great Lakes:
Please see previous smoke text product regarding determination of plume
of smoke and SO2 that continues to remain stationary over Victoria Island
and S BC with moderate to dense consistencies... With combining flow
around the base of the closed low in the WA/OR coastal waters and Nwly
flow from Canada... the area of smoke/SO2 then stretches out across S
Alberta and ext. S Saskatchewan into N ND and N MN...at the arrowhead
the thin strip of smoke/SO2 can be seen across central WI to Milwaukee
and then across Lake Michigan to far SW MI.

Sand/Dust:
Gulf of Mexico:
Saharan Air Layer with African thin density dust can be seen across
the entire Gulf of Mexico between 23N and 26N (Brownsville, TX to the
Florida Straits) and now appears to be coming ashore between Brownsville
and Corpus Christi, TX.  As the day progressed, sand/dust became easier
to detect further south across the central southern Gulf into the Bay
of Campeche as well.

Texas Panhandle:
Strong S winds have kicked up loose soil/dust across Deaf Smith to
Hartley county Texas moving N quickly.  The widest area is about 2/3rd
of the county wide over central and eastern Hartley county.



-Gallina


More information on the areas of smoke described above as well as others
can be found at the locations listed below.

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






 


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.