DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z April 4 2014
SMOKE Western Gulf of Mexico: There has been little change in this smoke area during the day. Mainly light density smoke from the seasonal agricultural burning in southern Mexico and Central America covers much of the western Gulf of Mexico west of around 92W. It extends from the Bay of Campeche northward to the entire Texas Gulf Coast. Eastern North Carolina/Atlantic Ocean: An area of thin density remnant smoke was still visible this evening from the North Carolina coast eastward extending into the Atlantic Ocean. This smoke is from the numerous agricultural fires that have occurred over the past several days in the southeastern U.S. BLOWING DUST New Mexico / West Texas: Strong winds associated with a cold front dropping southward through the region has caused considerable blowing dust over eastern New Mexico and West Texas into western Oklahoma. The front was dropping southward thru the Texas Panhandle and northeast New Mexico during the afternoon and evening. Westerly winds south of the front generated a broad area of light to moderately dense dust from the plains of eastern New Mexico across west Texas and into Southwest Oklahoma by sunset. The dust extended as far south as the Big Bend area a little north of Del Rio. The thickest portion of the dust was from near Big Spring Texas to near Hobart Oklahoma. Northerly winds behind the front were also producing plumes of dust extending southward between Dalhart and Borger. Ruminski THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF 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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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