DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z May 12, 2010
Updated to include Southwestern Canada... Southwestern Canada: An aerosol of unknown origin and composition was seen in visible imagery just prior to sunset across a good portion of Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces of southwestern Canada. Gulf of Mexico/South Central and Southeastern US: An expansive area of low to locally moderately dense smoke covered a large portion of the Gulf of Mexico from central and southern Florida towards the Texas coast. The smoke also extended south to cover most of the Bay of Campeche. It is not known how far inland the smoke had spread but some evidence of it existed in visible satellite imagery early this evening which appeared to show an aerosol likely composed at least partly by smoke spreading northward across much of Texas and Oklahoma, the western half of Louisiana, and a portion of Arkansas. Farther to the east, the smoke which had been detected inland over the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama earlier this morning, was no longer discernible due to cloudiness in the region. Nearly all of the smoke covering the Gulf of Mexico and the south central and southeastern states is believed to have originated from the tremendous number of seasonal agricultural burns continuing in Mexico and Central America. Southwestern and South Central US: This was another afternoon and evening of rather widespread blowing dust. An area of moderately dense to locally dense blowing dust originating from point sources in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico moved northeastward across far southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado toward central Colorado. Additional streaks of blowing dust developed late in the day across the southern third of New Mexico including White Sands as well as east central New Mexico and northwestern Texas. Some of this blowing dust, fanned by strong southwesterly winds, had reached as far as the Oklahoma panhandle by sunset. Farther to the south and west, another patch of blowing dust was moving to the northeast from a point source just on the Mexican side of the border with southeastern Arizona. Even more blowing dust may have existed over northern Mexico and far southwestern Texas with winds gusting to 50mph, but cloudiness in the region prevented dust detection in satellite imagery. 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