DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0045Z January 15, 2010
Sand/Dust: NW Mexico and S California: Strong northerly winds are pulling light dust and sand from agricultural areas S of a the Salton Sea and across the sandy deserts of exteme NE Baja California from Mexicali to the former mouth of the Colorado River and Alter Desert of extreme NE Sonora. This sand is covering a large portion of NW Gulf of California and S Baja California (State) as far south as the boarder of Baja California Sur and starting to reach the Pacific coast in the Bahia Sebastian. Inside this plume is a particularly dense source near the mouth of the Colorado and the N extent of the Sierra Pinta and extends to Luis Gonzaga. W Sonora: Sand and dust from the coastal deserts of W Sonora from just W of Hermosillo S across Guaymas to the Sinaloa boarder is blowing E to SE across to the front ranges of the Sierra Madre Occidental. This sand is thin to moderately dense throughout the large source area. Gallina 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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/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