DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z April 5, 2010
South Central Canada/Great Lakes Region: Several large areas of thin aerosol believed to be smoke were seen this morning stretching from northern Alberta southeastward to the Great Lakes region with a small pocket of moderate density smoke over Lake Huron. Additional haze was seen covering many of the states surrounding Lake Michigan but it could not be determined if smoked was mixed in as well in these areas. Some of the smoke over the Great Lakes region is believed to be from the large amounts of agricultural fires that have been occurring in the Central US over the past few days, but there is likely another unidentified source that has created much of the smoke across south central Canada into the northern US. This smoke with unknown origin may have drifted across the Pacific Ocean from Asia. Gulf of Mexico to Southeast US: A thick haze could be seen in the western Gulf of Mexico this morning. A more subtle area of haze approximately 150-200 miles in width was seen extending northeastward across northern Florida and along the southeast coast of the US. As the haze reached Cape Hatteras, NC it abruptly turned eastward out to sea before it disappeared under high clouds. -Sheffler 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