DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z April 6, 2010
South Central Canada/Great Lakes Region: Several large areas of thin to moderately dense aerosol believed to be remnant smoke were seen again this evening stretching from northern Alberta southeastward to the Great Lakes and reaching as far as southwestern Quebec. Additional haze was seen covering many of the states surrounding Lake Michigan but it could not be determined if smoked was mixed in as well in these areas. Some of the smoke over the Great Lakes region is believed to be from the large amounts of agricultural fires that have been occurring in the Central US over the past few days, but there is likely another unidentified source that has created much of the smoke across south central Canada and the extreme northern US. This smoke with unknown origin may have drifted across the Pacific Ocean from Asia. Gulf of Mexico to Southeast US/Central US: Optically thick haze seen over the Gulf of Mexico and southeast US this morning is now believed to be a mixture of remnant smoke and other aerosols. Numerous amounts of agricultural burning throughout the southern US today caused many small smoke plumes which were congealing with the remnant smoke already in place over the entire region. Much of the smoke in the western Gulf is believed to have drifted northward from fires in Mexico and a thin to moderately dense band of remnant smoke stretched from Texas northward to Oklahoma and across the southeast to the Carolinas. Another large piece of remnant smoke over northwest Oklahoma, Kansas, and west Missouri was separated from the main area by a band of clouds. Southwestern US: A significant area of haze was noticed in the evening visible satellite imagery stretching along a strong frontal boundary from southern California and northern Baja, Mexico northeastward to Colorado/southwest Nebraska. In addition, thick blowing sand/dust was seen across part of southeastern Arizona and southern New Mexico. It appeared as though particles from White Sands, NM were being picked up by the strong winds and carried to the northeast. -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