DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 19, 2011
Northern and Central Plains: A large area of light to moderately dense smoke was seen in a broad arc from west central to east central South Dakota then curling to the southeast across western Iowa and into Missouri. This smoke is likely from the Norton Point fire in the Shoshone National Forest in Fremont county in northwest Wyoming. A small patch of light remnant smoke was observed tracking across west central Minnesota, likely originating from last evening's fires in western Montana and northern Idaho. Illinois: Much of Illinois had an area of light smoke that was only slowly drifting to the east and is likely from the Ray May fire in western Nevada from 2 days ago. Texas: Several patches of light smoke were seen over central and western Texas that were drifting to the west. The origin is not certain but possibly from the numerous agricultural fires from the Florida Panhandle through Louisiana the past couple of days. Mid-Atlantic to New England Coast: Smoke from the Lateral West fire in the Great Dismal Swamp along the North Carolina/Virginia border was seen lifting to the north-northeast this morning and extending across the lower Chesapeake Bay to the southern Delmarva. Another area of smoke from the fire is seen over southeast New England and across Massachusetts Bay toward the southwest tip of Nova Scotia. Bahamas: An area of light suspended dust was noted again this morning over the eastern Bahamas. The dust has tracked across the Atlantic from the Sahara. Ruminski 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