DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z MARCH 21, 2009

The remnant smoke from numerous fires in Kansas and Oklahoma yesterday
drifted southeastward across Arkansas and Mississippi during the morning,
but could no longer be seen in satellite imagery later this afternoon.

Florida Panhandle/Gulf of Mexico/Southeastern Texas: Light smoke likely
mixed with other pollutants can still be seen over the Florida panhandle
that spreading out to the southwest along a frontal boundary across the
northern Gulf of Mexico and back inland over southeastern Texas. This
smoke could possibly be primarily from fires in Arkansas during the past
several days.

California: A patch of smoke mixed with blowing dust and/or other
pollutants was visible in the area extending south and east of Fresno
into the foothills of the southern Sierra-Nevada Mountains.

A very large number of fires were detected during the day across the
Midwest, South Central, and Southeastern U.S. Cloudiness spreading
eastward across the Central U.S. limited smoke detection in this
region. However, still numerous smoke plumes, some with moderately
dense to dense smoke were visible particularly in the South Central
and Southeastern states. See the links below for additional graphical
information on these plumes.  JS

THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER
DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE
PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE:

JPEG:   http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/hms.html
GIS:    http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm
KML:    http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html

THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE
WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE
SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO
STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST.

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT
PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov

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.