Friday, October 8, 2010

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0430Z October 9, 2010

Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley:
Numerous agricultural fires continue to burn throughout the middle to
lower Mississippi Valley producing mainly thin to moderately dense smoke
across the area. The smoke is seen moving east to northeast. Further to
the south, a large number of fires burned across the southern half of
Louisiana. These fires produced thin to moderately dense smoke moving
southward into the Gulf of Mexico. An area of light smoke was seen
detached moving across eastern Mississippi and into Alabama. This smoke
was also attributed to the agricultural burns along the Mississippi
Valley.

North Central US/South Central Canada:
Seasonal fires were noted over portions of southeastern Saskatchewan,
southern Manitoba, northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Some
cloudiness later in the afternoon interfered with smoke detection but
a few plumes were analyzed moving to the west.

-Earle

Earlier Today...

Texas coast/Arkansas/Gulf of Mexico:
Yesterday's fires in the Mississippi Valley southward into Louisiana
produced an area of thin remnant smoke across the western and central
Gulf of Mexico, as well as portions of the Texas coast. Another small
area of remnant smoke was seen over southern Arkansas. Several actively
burning fires this morning in southwest Louisiana were also producing
additional smoke that was traveling southeast.

Central Plains/Midwest/Western Great Lakes/Southeast Manitoba/Southwest
Ontario:
A fairly large area of thin to moderate density remnant smoke was seen
moving across southeast Manitoba, southwest Ontario, east Minnesota,
Wisconsin, northeast Iowa, the U.P. Of Michigan, and Lakes Superior
and Michigan. Most of this smoke likely came from the fires in southern
Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, and North Dakota. Another smaller area
of remnant smoke was seen moving northward from Kansas into Nebraska,
likely from the fires in Kansas and Oklahoma yesterday.

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

 


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.