Saturday, April 30, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z May 1, 2011

Gulf of Mexico through Ohio/Mississippi River Valleys:
A large area of mostly light smoke can be seen in this evening's
satellite imagery stretching through the central and western portions of
the Gulf of Mexico. Across the continental United States, the leading
edge of the smoke plume extends along line passing through Pensacola,
Birmingham, Chattanooga and Charleston, WV.  Atlanta, GA and Asheville,
NC were near the smoke plume by sunset.  This eastward moving remnant
smoke originated from agricultural burns in Mexico and Central America
as well as the numerous wildfires that are continuing to burn through
southern and western Texas and northern Mexico.

Blowing Dust/Sand:

White Sands:
An area of blowing dust originating in White Sands around 2115Z was
observed moving north-eastward into Chaves County, NM this evening.

Southern Nevada, Central and Southern California, and Arizona:
Possible blowing dust and/or sand can be seen moving south and east over
the California/Nevada border and central Arizona.   The origin of this
dust/sand mixture is unknown.

Gulf of California and NE Mexico:
Blowing dust from the desert regions in the Mexican states of Sonora,
Baja California and Baja California Sur was moving to the south and east
and over the open waters of the Gulf of California.   Some smoke from
agricultural fires also mixed with the dust.  Additional dust plumes
originating in western portions of Sonora moved south-eastward and into
interior sections of Mexico.

Chihuahua, New Mexico and Texas:
Blowing dust originating in northern Chihuahua moved north-eastward and
into the United States over southern New Mexico and El Paso and Hudspeth
Counties in Texas. It is highly likely that smoke has mixed with the
blowing dust due to the numerous wildfires in northern Mexico.

Myrga

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.