DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z May 13, 2010
Gulf of Mexico/South Central and Southeastern US: The expansive area of remnant smoke covering the Gulf of Mexico became hidden beneath cloud cover over the northwest Gulf by this evening. The most distinguishable smoke, which was fairly dense, could still be seen over the Bay of Campeche with additional moderate density smoke spreading northwest from western Cuba and west from Florida. Other pockets of thin to moderately dense smoke existed over the northern Gulf of Mexico, north Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Nearly all of the smoke covering the Gulf of Mexico is believed to have originated from the tremendous number of seasonal agricultural burns continuing in Mexico and Central America. Although numerous fires in Florida/Georgia today also added to the deteriorated air quality. Southern Central Canada: Numerous agricultural fires burning today in southern Saskatchewan had created a moderate sized area of thin smoke over the province. Some of this smoke had started to drift into southwestern Manitoba as well. Ohio/Tennessee Valleys: An unknown aerosol could be seen gathered along a frontal boundary over parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee; and even as far south as north Mississippi/north Alabama. This aerosol may include smoke from Mexico/Central America/southeastern US given southerly winds over the past day or it may be composed of blowing dust transported from the southwestern US. New Mexico/Texas: A fairly large area of blowing sand/dust was seen over eastern New Mexico, west Texas, and the Texas panhandle this evening. Also numerous smoke plumes could be seen across northwest Mexico spreading northeast towards western Texas. -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