Saturday, May 7, 2011

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

 


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.