Monday, March 21, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 22, 2011

Southwestern US:
Strong gusty southwesterly winds across the Southwestern US are likely
producing areas of blowing dust. A few reports of blowing dust were
noted in a couple of observations from northern and central New Mexico
during the day. However, cloudiness is widespread over a good portion
of the Southwest which is preventing detection in satellite imagery.

South Central and Southeastern US:
Numerous fires producing visible smoke in satellite imagery were analyzed
today across a large region extending from eastern Oklahoma and eastern
Texas to South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The most concentrated
area of fires over southwestern Georgia and northern Florida produced
many small smoke plumes which consolidated into a larger batch of mainly
thin density smoke which drifted to the east over portions of southern
Georgia and northern Florida. The smoke plumes with the greatest density
were observed moving to the north in western Arkansas, southeastern
Missouri, and northern Mississippi. Cloudiness interfered with smoke
detection across eastern Oklahoma and Kansas.

Northern Mexico/Southern Texas:
A large fire in northern Mexico around 120 miles southwest of Laredo,
TX was emitting a large moderately dense to thick smoke plume which was
moving to the north with the leading edge nearing the Texas border north
of Laredo just prior to sunset.


Earlier Today...
Ohio Valley/Mid-Atlantic Region/Southeast/Gulf of Mexico:
The NWS Air Quality Forecast Guidance at the following site...
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/aq/sectors/conus.php   is indicating leftover
smoke across portions of the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic region, the
Southeast, and offshore over the far western Atlantic and the eastern
Gulf of Mexico. Visible satellite imagery does show a bit of aerosol
in some of these areas though cloudiness scattered over this region is
interfering with detection. Any leftover smoke is due to the ongoing daily
large number of fires burning across the South Central and Southeastern
portions of the country.


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. 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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.