Sunday, April 10, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z April 10, 2011

Southern Plains to Great Lakes:
A large area of smoke, possibly mixed with some blowing dust caused
by yesterday's strong winds over the dry terrain of north Mexico/New
Mexico, covered the central US from southwest Texas northeastward to Lake
Michigan/southwest Michigan state. Moderately dense to dense smoke was
present over parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and
Arkansas with another area of moderately dense smoke over Illinois and
the extreme southern end of Lake Michigan. While some of this smoke came
from the agricultural burning in the Central Plains, especially eastern
Kansas, several wildfires that broke out yesterday in west Texas, the
Texas panhandle, eastern New Mexico, and southeast Colorado are largely
responsible for the thicker densities of remnant smoke moving to the
northeast. In addition, large uncontrolled wildfires continue to burn
in the northern Mexico state of Coahuila that still produced dense smoke
yesterday across the Texas border.

Indiana to Southeast US coast/Eastern Gulf of Mexico:
A plume of thin smoke stretched southeast from Indiana/southern Lake
Michigan across the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia before spreading out off the Southeast
US coast. Pockets of moderate density smoke were seen off the coast
of Georgia. This smoke then drifted southward over the Bahamas and
wrapped back westward across most of Florida into the eastern Gulf of
Mexico. Most of this remnant smoke is believed to have come from the
fires in the Central Plains although some could also be from the fires
in the southern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi yesterday.

Western/Central Gulf of Mexico/Cuba:
Moderate to dense smoke covers most of the western Gulf of Mexico this
morning as large amounts of burning continue in the Yucatan Peninsula
and other parts of Central America. In addition, a very long plume of
moderately dense smoke about 420 miles in length could be seen originating
from one of the oil rigs in the eastern Gulf of Campeche today drifting
northward. Remnant smoke drifting in the central Gulf was thinner than
that in the eastern or western Gulf, but was being filled with additional
smoke coming from Cuba.

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.