DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 11, 2010
Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic: An area of low density smoke which was visible this morning continued to be seen late this afternoon spreading from the central and southern Florida Peninsula northwestward through the central Gulf of Mexico toward the Gulf coast region from southeastern Texas to the far western Florida panhandle. It is not known how far inland the smoke had spread since it is not as easily visible with land being the background as with water. The smoke is believed to have originated from the tremendous number of seasonal agricultural burns in Mexico and Central America. Additional thin density smoke from the Mexican and Central American fires was visible moving to the north-northwest from the Bay of Campeche into the western Gulf of Mexico toward far southern Texas. New Mexico/Colorado/Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas: A significant swath of blowing dust originating from point sources in eastern New Mexico and western Texas spread quickly eastward and consolidated into a band of thin to moderate density blowing dust which extended from west central Texas northeastward across western and central Oklahoma to south central and southeastern Kansas. A few narrow smoke plumes from a handful of fires over northwestern Texas and western Oklahoma quickly moved to the east and combined with the blowing dust. An additional patch of blowing dust surged southeastward from southeastern Colorado across western Kansas to the Oklahoma panhandle just prior to sunset. New Mexico/Arizona/California: A small patch of blowing dust was observed moving to the northeast from the White Sands region of south central New Mexico. Streaks of blowing dust were visible moving to the northeast from sources in north central and northeastern Arizona. Finally, other relatively small batches of blowing dust were detected spreading to the northeast from sources in interior south central California. Northern New Mexico/Far Southwestern Texas: Gusty winds were also present across northern Mexico and far southwestern Texas although high clouds passing over the region greatly hindered any detection of blowing dust. Southern Ontario to off the Northeastern US coast: Patches of thin aerosol of unknown origin and composition were seen drifting eastward and southeastward across much of Ontario and the southern portion of Quebec province. The aerosol also extended southward over central New York, eastern Pennsylvania, and then southeastward over northern and central New Jersey and off the coast. Due to the thin density, the aerosol was only seen in the morning and evening with the favorable lower sun angle. JS 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