DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z April 11, 2008
Gulf of Mexico: A large area of thin to moderately dense smoke stretches from southeastern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and western Central America northward across the Bay of Campeche to the western Gulf of Mexico just off the southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana coast. This northward moving smoke was due to ongoing seasonal fires burning across southern and southeastern Mexico as well as portions of Central America. Eastern Texas to the Great Lakes Region: A long swath of thin to even moderately dense blowing dust which originated from eastern New Mexico and western Texas yesterday was visible in morning satellite imagery (especially GOES-West visible imagery) stretching from eastern Texas and Louisiana northward across central and eastern Arkansas, northwestern Mississippi, western Tennessee, central and eastern Illinois, and Indiana to the Great Lakes region around Wisconsin and Michigan where it became difficult to see due to cloud cover. Southeastern US: Several developing localized smoke plumes were beginning to show up in visible imagery early this afternoon over northern Florida, eastern Georgia, and eastern South Carolina. JS