DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0045Z April 29, 2014
DUST: Arizona/New Mexico/Texas: Blowing dust was observed originating over the Four Corners area in northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico. This light to moderately dense dust was moving to the southeast into central New Mexico. A small plume of light dust was also seen dropping south from the White Sands area of south central New Mexico. A broader area of light to moderately dense dust was originating over loose soils and sand of west Texas near Lubbock and east central New Mexico. This area of dust was moving to the east and reached the Dallas/Ft Worth area by sunset. North Mexico: An area of light to moderately dense blowing dust was detected over northern Chihuahua west of El Paso and was drifting to the southeast mostly parallel to the Rio Grande. Kansas: Extensive cloudiness prevented detection of dust in Kansas this afternoon/evening. However, strong winds gusting in excess of 40 kts were noted, dust forecast models were indicating dust covering much of the state and there was at least one surface report (at Wichita) of blowing dust. SMOKE: Western Gulf of Mexico : A large area of light-density to moderately dense smoke continues to be seen over the entire western half of the Gulf of Mexico, west of about 88W. The smoke extends west of a line from the Yucatan northward to Mobile Bay. It likely extends further north into the Southern US but extensive clouds hinder accurate detection. Texas: Two fires are generating notable smoke plumes this evening. One is from a large fire in west Texas about 100km north of Del Rio. A mainly light smoke plume extended about 200km to the east. A second large fire was near Ft Hood and had a light to moderately dense plume extending to the east reaching to near Lufkin by sunset. 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