DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 22, 2010
Northern Gulf of Mexico: A hot spot and smoke plume can be seen in satellite imagery from the oil rig explosion and fire in the northern Gulf of Mexico off the southeastern Louisiana coast. The thin to locally moderately dense smoke plume is fanning out as it moves in a southeasterly direction. South Central Canada/Northern and Central Plains/Great Lakes Region/Ohio Valley: GOES visible imagery this afternoon continued to show an area of aerosol stretching from Saskatchewan Province in south central Canada southeastward across eastern Montana and the Dakotas to the Central Plains and the Upper to Middle Mississippi Valley. The aerosol also appeared to extend farther to the east and southeast to possibly as far as the Ohio Valley. It is believed that leftover smoke from the large number of daily fires burning across south central Canada, the Dakotas, and western Minnesota are responsible for at least a portion of this aerosol. More fires producing visible smoke in satellite imagery were analyzed again today across concentrated across the same general region of south central Canada, North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, and western Minnesota. Southwestern US: Strong southerly and southwesterly winds around a strong area of low pressure were blowing across southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico. It is likely that at least some blowing dust was being kicked up by these winds, although visible satellite imagery did not show anything definite through sunset. Cloudiness across the region did hinder dust detection in satellite imagery. 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.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