DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1530Z April 15, 2008
Western Gulf of Mexico to Minnesota/Wisconsin: Morning GOES-West Visible imagery with the favorable low sun angle showed a very long swath of leftover thin smoke stretching from the western Gulf of Mexico/eastern Texas/southwestern Louisiana northward across the Central Plains to eastern South Dakota/Minnesota/western Wisconsin. The northward moving smoke within the northern half of this area was mainly due to the incredible number of fires detected yesterday centered over eastern Kansas. Within this large area of thin smoke, a moderately dense patch of smoke was observed extending from south central Iowa to southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The southern half of this large mass of thin smoke was moving to the south and was attributed more to leftover smoke from several larger fires yesterday in eastern Oklahoma, Arkansas, eastern Texas, and south central Louisiana. See the NWS smoke forecast website for additional information... http://www.weather.gov/aq/sectors/conus.php In addition to the leftover smoke, new smoke plumes were forming and moving to the north over eastern Kansas and also from a fire in Baylor County in north central Texas. Northwestern Utah/Western Wyoming: An area of apparent blowing dust/sand kicked up by strong southerly and southwesterly winds was visible over northwestern Utah (including the Salt Lake City metro area) and western Wyoning. Some of this blowing dust/sand is likely from sources in or very close to this region as well as from leftover blowing dust/sand seen yesterday evening in satellite imagery emanating from sources in northwestern Nevada. JS