DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 12, 2017
SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche Very thin density smoke was visible across the central and western portions of the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche from the ongoing seasonal fires occurring over Cuba, southeastern Mexico, and Central America. Some leftover smoke from fires in Florida including the wildfire in northeastern Collier County of southern Florida was likely included in this large mass of thin density smoke. Kansas A large patch of moderately dense to locally thick smoke was seen over eastern Kansas, southeastern Nebraska, and northeastern Oklahoma. This smoke was due to a tremendous amount of seasonal burning occurring primarily in the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas. Numerous individual smoke plumes were also visible over portions of central and western Kansask, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota with some of these plumes merging to form relatively larger patches of smoke. DUST: North Central US/South Central Canada... A thin density aerosol was visible just prior to sunset with the favorable sun angle over south central Canada from Alberta to Manitoba and over the US from eastern Montana over the Dakotas to Minnesota. Information from previous model forecasts indicate this aerosol may be composed in part from dust transported all the way from Asia. 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