Saturday, April 26, 2008

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z APRIL 26, 2008

Western Canada/Western and Central US/Pacific Ocean:
Smoke of mainly thin density likely originating from recent large
Russian fires and possibly mixed with some Asian dust/sand continues
to move over portions of the eastern Pacific Ocean and across Canada
and the US.  GOES-West visible satellite imagery this morning showed a
patch of this residual smoke moving southward across the eastern Pacific,
just off the California and Baja coast.  Another thin ribbon of possible
residual smoke stretched from just off the Pacific Northwest coast,
inland over Washington and Oregon, and then southeastward and eastward
over Nevada and the 4 corners region, before turning northeast across
the Central Plains of Kansas/Missouri to the southern Great Lakes region.
More possible smoke extended from the Northern Plains southeastward over
Iowa and Illinois.  Finally, yet another very long swath of possible
smoke appeared to extend from the Northwest Territories of Canada
southeastward over portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces of
Canada, to central Montana.

Texas:
A relatively small patch of smoke was visible moving to the north
across southwestern Texas toward the Texas-New Mexico border just west
of Midland TX.  This smoke was leftover from a significant fire which
was burning yesterday and overnight across northern Brewster County of
southwestern Texas.

Western Gulf of Mexico:
A large mass of primarily thin density smoke covered the Bay of Campeche
and the far western Gulf of Mexico.  Some of this smoke also was visible
over extreme eastern Mexico with the leading edge very close to southern
Texas.  This smoke was due to the ongoing seasonal fires burning across
portions of Mexico and Central America.

JS


 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.