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