FRIDAY APRIL 10, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z APRIL 10, 2009

Central to Southern Plains/Lower and Middle Mississippi Valley:
Residual thin remnant smoke and blowing dust was still seen this morning
wrapping around the western side of an area of low pressure. The
smoke stretched from west central Kansas southeastward to central
Oklahoma. South of there, active wildfires were still burning in south
central Oklahoma and north central Texas. The moderately dense smoke
plumes from these fires were moving in a south-southeast direction,
extending well to the south across central Texas. A larger mass of smoke
from the TX/OK wildfires as well as leftover blowing dust was seen in
morning visible satellite imagery across southern and southeastern
Texas extending northeastward into the lower and middle Mississippi
Valley. Cloudiness interfered with the detection of some of this residual
smoke/blowing dust in this region. For more information concerning
the smoke forecast refer to the National Weather Service Air Quality
website... http://www.nws.noaa.gov/aq/sectors/conus.php

Gulf of Mexico:
Thin smoke from the ongoing seasonal fires burning in Mexico and Central
America spread northward into the western Gulf of Mexico to just off
the Louisiana coast by mid morning.

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.