DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0430Z October 9, 2010
Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley: Numerous agricultural fires continue to burn throughout the middle to lower Mississippi Valley producing mainly thin to moderately dense smoke across the area. The smoke is seen moving east to northeast. Further to the south, a large number of fires burned across the southern half of Louisiana. These fires produced thin to moderately dense smoke moving southward into the Gulf of Mexico. An area of light smoke was seen detached moving across eastern Mississippi and into Alabama. This smoke was also attributed to the agricultural burns along the Mississippi Valley. North Central US/South Central Canada: Seasonal fires were noted over portions of southeastern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota. Some cloudiness later in the afternoon interfered with smoke detection but a few plumes were analyzed moving to the west. -Earle Earlier Today... Texas coast/Arkansas/Gulf of Mexico: Yesterday's fires in the Mississippi Valley southward into Louisiana produced an area of thin remnant smoke across the western and central Gulf of Mexico, as well as portions of the Texas coast. Another small area of remnant smoke was seen over southern Arkansas. Several actively burning fires this morning in southwest Louisiana were also producing additional smoke that was traveling southeast. Central Plains/Midwest/Western Great Lakes/Southeast Manitoba/Southwest Ontario: A fairly large area of thin to moderate density remnant smoke was seen moving across southeast Manitoba, southwest Ontario, east Minnesota, Wisconsin, northeast Iowa, the U.P. Of Michigan, and Lakes Superior and Michigan. Most of this smoke likely came from the fires in southern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, and North Dakota. Another smaller area of remnant smoke was seen moving northward from Kansas into Nebraska, likely from the fires in Kansas and Oklahoma yesterday. 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