Monday, April 12, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0015Z April 13, 2010

Mid Atlantic:
A swath of remnant smoke approximately 200 km wide was seen extending
off the Mid Atlantic coast from the southern tip of the Delmarva to the
northern Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is smoke from the numerous
fires in the Central Plains of the past few days. The smoke that was seen
earlier today extending back over the Ohio Valley was not discernible this
evening due to clouds over the area and gradual thinning of the smoke.

Central Plains:
Another round of fires was seen again today over eastern Kansas and
Oklahoma which is producing another surge of smoke that was lifting
north across eastern Kansas into southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa.

Several large fires with very dense smoke were seen over west central
Arkansas, southeast Oklahoma and southeast Missouri. All of this smoke
was lifting to the north and northwest.

Southeast:
Several fires across South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama were producing
plumes of moderately dense smoke that were drifting mainly to the
southwest.

Southwest:
Strong winds ahead of a frontal system moving into the Intermountain
region was kicking up a large area of blowing dust. The dust was being
generated over north central and northeast Arizona and northwest New
Mexico by sunset with the dust lifting to the north and northeast over
much of eastern Utah and western Colorado.


Previous discussion:
Central Plains through the Ohio Valley and Mid Atlantic:
A broad swath of mostly light to moderately dense smoke was seen extending
from Iowa and Illinois east southeastward across Kentucky and southern
Ohio to West Virginia, Virginia and southern Maryland. The smoke then
extended well off the coast into the Atlantic. This smoke originated from
several days of intense burning with a large number of fires mainly in
Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

An area of light to moderately dense smoke was also seen lifting north
over eastern Kansas this morning, which is likely from a couple of
wildfires that were active through the overnight and into this morning
over eastern Oklahoma.

Ruminski


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


 


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.