DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1545Z August 12, 2011
Mid-Atlantic Coast: The Lateral West fire in SE VA along the NC boarder continues to pump out copious amounts of moderately dense smoke. Wind flow in the area is quite complicated with a recent frontal passage. Predawn and early morning smoke is generally low level and is moving west covering a large portion of S VA and NE NC with thin smoke under a broken cloud deck. A plume moderately dense plume can be seen moving due west and is about 20km wide directly along the boarder at to around 78W. Yesterday's smoke can be seen in a moderately dense band connecting to a large area of thin to moderate smoke over the Atlantic ahead (East and South) of the front/cyclone near 36N71W... the band extends to the SW of the cyclone/point to 34N72W then due west between 33/34N to a cloudy region ESE of Wilmington NC where it turns due north over the Outer Banks. Colorado/New Mexico: An unnamed fire in Western CO (northern Mesa county) produced heavy smoke last night that has faded into a few patches of thin smoke over CO into KS and NM. Smoke is no longer seen emitting from the source first. The first area is a bit more dense but was seen over the Sangre de Cristo Mtns of NM and CO then extending ENE across Las Animas into S Otero/S Bent/N Baca S Prowers to the KS boarder; the smoke in NM was moving S while the eastern extent was moving ENE. A second area, possibly connected but extremely faint was moving NE cover the front range and much of El Paso county into Elbert county. Wyoming to the Central Great Plains: An unnamed fire complex in far N Fremont county on the southern flanks of the far SE portions of the Absaroka Range in WY continues to emit smoke northward through the gaps in the range...but the smoke from last night has rapidly raced to the east and is now a thin to moderately dense plume that extends to the front zone crossing SE SD into NW IA. The plume is most dense (moderate to heavy) from Pierre to Sioux City IA, very thin smoke could be seen at low sun angles over the Black Hills to a second area of thin to moderate smoke can be seen from the northern flanks of the Laramie Range back along the southern Owl Creek Range but fades to very thin toward the source. Gallina THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE 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 ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov