DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z March 23, 2010
Midwest to Southern Plains: Thin to moderately dense smoke was observed this morning stretching from the southern end of Lake Michigan to the Gulf coast. The remnant smoke is likely the same that was analyzed in yesterday's fire/smoke analysis over the Northern Plains, with the origin possibly being from numerous agricultural fires in that region. The moderately dense areas of the remnant smoke were seen over north Illinois/east Missouri and over southeast Oklahoma/east Texas/southwest Louisiana. However, most of this smoke could not be discerned in the evening satellite imagery, with the exception of some thin smoke across Illinois, northwest Indiana, and southwest Michigan. Texas Coast: A large fire burning along the Texas coast today between Galveston and Port Arthur created a long plume of moderately dense to dense smoke that stretched 160 miles to the southeast. California/Southern Nevada: A band of unknown aerosols/haze was seen moving southward through central California/southern Nevada this evening. The band of haze is associated with a cold front sweeping through the region and allowed the haze to be most dense at the southern end of the Central CA Valley. The GASP product showed the haze extremely well this evening. Some thin smoke was also present further north between Sacramento and San Francisco, believed to be from agricultural burning that was going on in the northern part of the state. -Sheffler 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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/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