DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1515Z August 26, 2011
Dust: A narrow strip of Saharan dust (Saharan Air Layer/SAL) in advance of hurricane Irene has continued to fade and merge with upper level smoke (described below) making determination difficult to track, though it appears the dust/SAL can be seen from under Irene's outflow in VA across the southern Appalachians of TN/GA/NC along the GA/AL boarder and Florida panhandle to the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. The SAL in the Gulf will likely be the only easy to track are over the next few days as it continues to drift S and SE back over South Florida and the Florida Straits. Smoke: Midwest: A dense pocket of smoke from western fire outputs two days ago is located in the center of a digging/enhancing trof currently centered over the “Thumb” of Lower MI. A narrow sheared ribbon of moderately dense smoke extends in a 20-25 km wide line toward the SW across NW OH, central IN to the base of the trof near St. Louis. Then it connects back up with the Swly flow behind the trof and moderately dense smoke from the last day's output from the western fires across E IA, E MN and W WI and the UP of MI. Thin smoke connects to nearly all other areas described below. Southcentral US: A ridge of high pressure over NE TX continues to hold smoke from emissions earlier this week from the fires in ID/MT and WY. This smoke is thin with small linear shaped “pockets/strands” of moderate smoke covering all of KS, OK, TX, LA and NM with portions of smoke affecting SW AR, and SW MS and the coastal Gulf of Mexico from Brownsville, TX over to Mobile, AL. Smoke over SE KS/E OK/SW AR and LA is moving SEward into the Gulf, while influence from the upper level ridge is moving smoke in TX, W OK, W KS due south into Old Mexico and southwestward across NM starting to move into SE AZ. Upper Great Plains: A broad front with isolated convection extends from SW Ontario to the Denver area of Colorado...smoke from the numerous MT/WY/ID fires crosses both sides of the front, and areas S of this boundary are described above. Smoke from last night's output from the MT/WY fires was quite dense over E WY moving into the “panhandle” of Nebraska and extreme SW SD (south of the Black Hills)... moderate smoke extends across central SD into South central MN from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis. Central Idaho: Thin smoke covers the valleys of N ID and Western Montana, but a disconnected plume of thin to moderately dense smoke can be seen moving over central ID in the Salmon River Range from Boise to the MT boarder near Salmon, ID. This smoke is likely from the large fires in SE Oregon. 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