DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1745Z March 25, 2011
Gulf of Mexico/Cuba/Southern Florida: An expansive area of thin to occasionally moderate density remnant smoke currently covers nearly the entire western half of the Gulf of Mexico as smoke from the fires in Mexico over the last few days continues to be pulled northward towards the U.S. In addition, several day old remnant smoke from fires in the southeast that has been gradually being pushed southward by a frontal boundary can be seen over the east central Gulf of Mexico extending across southern Florida and the northern Bahamas. A third area of smoke that is likely more fresh, probably only from yesterday's fires, can be seen originating from Cuba moving west and then northwest from the island nation. Eastern Gulf Coast/North Florida/Southeast US Coast: Several large smoke producing fires that burned through the night in southeast Georgia are still actively producing moderately dense to dense smoke this morning. This smoke was drifting south and southwest this morning taking the bulk of the fresh smoke across the Florida panhandle near Tallahassee, but just since 15Z, the winds have shifted and the smoke is now moving eastward across southeast Georgia. Smoke from these fires yesterday and the large amount of other fires across the Southeast US has contributed to the thin to moderate density remnant smoke that stretches from just south of Mobile, Alabama across northern Florida and off into the Atlantic, where some appears to have wrapped around a surface low off the South Carolina coast. Oklahoma/Kansas/Missouri/Arkansas/Louisiana/Mississippi: An area of thin remnant smoke could be seen over parts of Kansas/Oklahoma and through breaks in the clouds over Missouri/Arkansas/northeast Louisiana/west central Mississippi. This smoke likely came from the numerous agricultural fires and the several wildfires that were burning over the Central Plains yesterday. Southern California/Arizona/Gulf of California: Two large smoke producing fires were burning near the Mexico/US border this morning, one in the farmland south of the Salton Sea in southern California and the other along the border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California Norte. These fires had produced an area of thin remnant smoke that could be seen moving across south and central Arizona this morning. Thin to moderately dense smoke was also moving southward across the waters of the Gulf of California from the Mexican fire. 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