DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z May 8, 2011
Gulf of Mexico: Thin density smoke from the ongoing seasonal fires burning in Mexico and Central America covered much of the western and southwestern Gulf of Mexico including the Bay of Campeche. The smoke appeared to have spread almost to the southeastern Texas coast by sunset. Southeastern US/Southwestern Atlantic: Dense smoke continued to move to the southeast and well off the coast of North Carolina from a large wildfire burning in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge along the Hyde/Dare county line in eastern North Carolina. Another large fire in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Georgia near the Florida border was emitting a huge dense plume of smoke which moved to the east across the Jacksonville FL area during the afternoon. A large area of moderately dense to dense smoke produced by this fire over the past couple of days was visible circulating off the FL/GA coast well out over the Atlantic. Some of the thin smoke from this fire had even moved back inland over the east central Florida coast. Southwestern and South Central US: Several dense smoke plumes from wildfires located over northwestern Texas, southwestern New Mexico, and just south of the south central AZ-Mexico border were visible in satellite imagery this evening. The smoke from the northwestern Texas fire in Dickey County was fanning out as it moved to the east, while the plumes from the fires in New Mexico and just south of Arizona were moving in a northeasterly direction. JS Earlier this morning... Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas: Remnant light smoke was seen in this morning's satellite imagery tracking east to east southeast across eastern CO, eastern NM and into KS, OK and northern TX. This smoke mostly originating from a large wildfire that has been burning for several days in northern Grant County in southwestern New Mexico. Other sources for this area are agricultural fires across a large portion of Mexico. Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Coast USA: An area of remnant light smoke with embedded elongated area of moderately dense smoke is seen tracking south to southeast off the east coast of GA and FL. A smaller patch of light smoke was seen moving southwest off the coast of FL into eastern Gulf of Mexico. These areas of smoke are remnant from the wildfire that continues to burn near the FL/GA border and the wildfire in extreme eastern NC. Earle 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