DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z April 15, 2011
Florida Coast/Northern Bahamas: An area of remnant thin smoke was seen this morning draped along the eastern Florida coast reaching southward to the northern parts of the Bahamas before turning eastward across the Atlantic. This smoke could possibly be from the fires in the southeast US yesterday or it may have originated in Cuba a few days ago. Southeast Gulf of Mexico: Thin smoke could be seen this morning drifting northwestward from the western end of Cuba, where a large amount of agricultural burning had taken place yesterday. Some of this smoke covered southwest Florida and the Florida Keys. Gulf of Mexico: Thin to moderately dense smoke coming from Mexico and Central America fires could be seen this morning lifting northward across the western Gulf of Mexico before turning northeastward over the north central Gulf. This remnant smoke then continued northeastward across southeast Louisiana/southern Mississippi/south Alabama/ and the Florida panhandle before disappearing beneath cloudiness. Some of the smoke over the northwestern Gulf may also have been from the wildfires over north Mexico and western Texas. Northeast Mexico/Texas/Louisiana/Mississippi River Valley: The large wildfires across Texas and northern Mexico continued to burn this morning producing moderately dense to dense smoke plumes. Remnant smoke from these same fires last night could be seen drifting off the Texas coast across the Gulf of Mexico and southward into northeast Mexico. A large amount of new fires had also started to ignite in north central Texas and southwest Oklahoma during the past hour or two. Southeast Colorado/Southwest Kansas/Oklahoma Panhandle/North Texas & Panhandle: A large amount of blowing dust was present from southeast Colorado/southwest Kansas and the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles stretching southeastward to north central Texas. A 993mb surface low over the Central Plains with strong 30-50kt winds over the above mentioned area was the cause of this blowing dust event. 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