DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 20, 2008
Central Plains and neighboring areas: Widespread and numerous agricultural burns are seen throughout the area occasionally accompanied by isolated, mostly light smoke plumes large enough to see in GOES imagery. However in eastern Kansas the fires are exceptionally dense and the resulting smoke forms a large, apparently continuous, area of light to moderate smoke approximately bounded by 39.5N 96.9W, 39.5N 95.8W, 37.7N 94.8W, 37.0N 95.3W, 38.1N 96.9W, and 39.5N 96.9W. In Oklahoma, mostly due to fires centered in and around Ellis County, there is a smaller area of light to moderate smoke. New York: The fire in southern Ulster County continues to burn today, producing a plume of light smoke that extends northward into Greene County. Nevada, Idaho and Utah: Two plumes of thick dust can be seen in northern Nevada blowing northeastward into southwestern Idaho. An area of northward-moving dust seen in western Utah earlier today has become fainter. Northern Gulf of Mexico: A mix of smoke from Mexican agricultural burns and haze can be seen trailing along following the front in an east-west direction. It is offshore for most of the Gulf Coast states and is moving farther offshore but some of the lighter smoke and haze does curve northward and extend into northeastern Florida.