DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z February 20, 2011
Middle Atlantic Region: A number of significant smoke plumes were observed from Maryland southward across Virginia and North Carolina as very strong northwesterly winds fanned many wildfires. Southeastern US: The smoke which was observed this morning in a band extending from well offshore of the Southeastern US over the Atlantic inland across a good portion of the Florida peninsula and over the eastern Gulf of Mexico was still visible through the day as it drifted farther to the south. This large mass of smoke possibly combined with other aerosols was believed to be from the many daily fires burning across the Southeastern US during the past several days. During the day today, once again many fires producing visible smoke were analyzed across the Southeast, especially over the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Cloudiness did interfere with smoke detection in satellite imagery, particularly in areas farther to the west from western Georgia to Texas and the south central Plains region. Southwestern US: Several streaks of thin density blowing dust/sand were visible late this afternoon from sources in northern Mexico just south of the Arizona and New Mexico border as well as spots farther to the northeast across southwestern and south central New Mexico including White Sands. The dust/sand plumes were moving off to the northeast. JS Earlier this Morning... Gulf of Mexico: Several areas of thin remnant smoke, which may be mixed with other aerosols, are seen over the Gulf of Mexico today. The main area is moving across the central Gulf of Mexico spreading westward with a small area seen beneath clouds trailing behind. Given the atmospheric wind flow over the Gulf the past day or so, this smoke appears to have have originated from a combination of recent fires in the southeast US and Cuba. Remnant smoke is also present along the southern Texas coast lifting northward and probably originated from recent fires in Mexico. 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. THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov