Thursday, April 7, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z April 08, 2011

Eastern Mexico/Western Gulf of Mexico into Texas and Louisiana:
An area of remnant light to moderate smoke was evident on this evenings
satellite imagery over a large portion of eastern Mexico the Western Gulf
of Mexico and extending north into eastern Texas and Louisiana. This
area is most likely remnant smoke from agricultural fires burning in
southern Mexico over the last several days and also from the large
wildfires burning over northern Coahuila in Mexico.

The full extent of smoke coverage this evening may not be realized due
to widespread cloudiness across much of the central USA.

Northern Texas:
A large wildfire over northern Stonewall was emitting a large and very
dense smoke plume that was lifting northeast into southern Oklahoma.

New Mexico/West Texas:
An area of blowing dust was noted on satellite imagery over eastern New
Mexico and western Texas and into the Texas Panhandle.

Northeastern Colorado/Western Nebraska/Southeastern Wyoming:
An area of light remnant smoke was analyzed over portions of northeastern
Colorado, western Nebraska and southeastern Wyoming this evening.
The source region for this area of smoke is likely the large number of
agricultural fires that have been ongoing over the past few days over
portions of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa.

West Coast:
This evenings satellite imagery indicated a Trans-Pacific transport of
blowing dust, likely from east Asia, along coastal regions of the West
Coast from Canada south to portions of California.

Hanna

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.