DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z March 5, 2017
Updated to include blowing dust... SMOKE: Southeastern US... A tremendous number of what are believed to be mainly seasonal fires were detected from Mississippi across Alabama, Georgia, northern Florida, and the Carolinas. Many individual primarily thin density smoke plumes were also visible with some of these fires. Central and South Central US... More significant mainly seasonal fires were analyzed from Iowa and Illinois southward to Oklahoma and Arkansas. Cloudiness spreading northward covered much of Texas and eventually Oklahoma, Louisiana, and part of Arkansas which significantly limited smoke and fire detection in these areas. However, a few significant smoke plumes were noted spreading northward over west central Arkansas and southeastern Missouri before the clouds moved in. DUST: Nevada... A fairly significant swath of rather thick blowing dust originated from a dry lake bed (Carson Sink) in west central Nevada during the afternoon and quickly spread to the northeast reaching at least as far as northeastern Nevada before sunset. Cloudiness moving over the area did interfere with additional information on the extent of the dust in satellite imagery. JS 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