DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z April 14, 2012
Western Gulf of Mexico: A rather large area of mostly light smoke can be seen moving northward through the western portion of the Gulf of Mexico this evening, towards the Texas coast. This is mostly remnant smoke that has been around for several days now and working it's way northward from the numerous agricultural fires burning across Central America. Eastern Gulf of Mexico/Florida: A large area of new and remnant smoke continues to be seen through the Florida Panhandle and moving southward into the eastern Gulf of Mexico this evening. Most of this is due to the County Line fire through Columbia County, FL that continues to burn and produce light to moderately dense smoke. There has also been numerous agricultural fires burning throughout the southeastern US over the past several days adding to the large amount of remnant smoke seen through the Gulf. Western Virginia: The Easter Complex fires continue to burn through western Virginia this evening and have produced a moderate sized area of dense smoke in that region. With mostly calm winds through that region, the smoke seems to be spreading out laterally but not really moving in any one direction. Belge 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