DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z August 29, 2010
Lower Mississippi Valley/Eastern Texas/South Central Canada/Great Lakes States: A thin to moderately dense area of smoke extends from southeastern Texas north-northeastward across the Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, Great Lakes and into south-central Canada. Moderately-dense smoke is mostly concentrated over potions of eastern and northern Missouri, Illinois, eastern Iowa, western Indiana and western Michigan. Smoke is attributed to numerous agricultural fires that were analyzed yesterday across eastern TX and lower Mississippi Valley as well as from wildfires burning in the northern Rockies. Smoke likely extends further south and east across lower portions of the Mississippi Valley based on yesterday's analysis, however dense cloud cover from a low pressure system is obscuring the ability to detect smoke in this area. It is also difficult to determine how far east the area of smoke extends because in GOES-EAST it is very difficult to detect, while in GOES-WEST with the more optimal early-morning sun angle the smoke shows up very clearly. However the limiting factor with GOES-WEST is that it does not provide imagery far enough east to determine the eastern extent of the smoke. Based on satellite imagery from this morning smoke is seen as far east as western and upstate New York, but it is likely that the eastern extent is farther to the east than can be observed in morning satellite imagery. Warren 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