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