Thursday, October 7, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0315Z October 8, 2010

Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley:
Numerous agricultural fires were responsible for many thin to locally
moderately dense smoke plumes which moved in a southeasterly direction
and consolidated in some spots to form somewhat larger patches of
smoke. Farther to the south, a large number of fires were also analyzed
across the southern third of Louisiana. The smoke plumes from these
fires moved mainly to the south with some smoke spreading over the
western Gulf of Mexico.

North Central US/South Central Canada:
Seasonal fires again were noted over portions of south central Canada
as well as North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Some cloudiness
did interfere with smoke detection but a few smoke plumes were observed
moving to the east and northeast.

Western US:
Widespread cloudiness around a large ares of low pressure significantly
inhibited fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. The only smoke
producing fires detected in satellite imagery were in less cloudy areas
of central California and northern Washington.

JS

Earlier Today...
Central US:
A large area of remnant smoke from previous days fires can be seen
throughout the central United States.  An area of moderately dense
smoke extends from north to south from western Kansas, down through
western Oklahoma and into the panhandle of Texas.  Lighter smoke can be
seen through this same area but also extends east through Missouri and
Arkansas into southern Illinois, western Kentucky and western Tennessee.
The full extent of the smoke to the east cannot be seen due to the areal
coverage of western geostationary satellite.

-Salemi


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.