DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z March 26, 2011
Gulf of Mexico: Thin to moderate density smoke could be seen covering most of the Gulf of Mexico this morning as remnant smoke from the past few days of fires in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and from other Central American countries continued to stream northward. As this smoke reaches the Gulf Coast, the flow has been maneuvering it eastward across the northern Gulf towards northern Florida. In addition, a plume of smoke was lifting northwestward across Cuba from the numerous fires there yesterday extending over and to the northwest of the Florida Keys where it meets the smoke that is coming from Mexico. Southeast US Coast: While the large smoke producing fires in southeast Georgia are still burning this morning, they were producing less dense and smaller smoke plumes with the new smoke moving northeastward. A large area of remnant smoke was still present off the Southeast Coast stretching southeastward from Georgia to the northern Bahamas and eastward from the South Carolina coast out over the Atlantic as the smoke slid along a west to east oriented frontal boundary. Moderately dense smoke within this larger area could be seen extending approximately 330 miles southeastward from the Georgia/South Carolina border. Oklahoma/Texas: An area of thin remnant smoke could be seen over southern Oklahoma and central to northeast Texas moving behind and beneath the cloud deck. This smoke likely came from the numerous fires that have been burning in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas the past few days. Ontario/Northern Great Lakes Region: An aerosol of unknown origin and composition stretched from the northwestern corner of the Canadian province of Ontario south and southeastward to the northern parts of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, also covering a small extent of the U.P. of Michigan. This aerosol could be partially made up of remnant smoke from the fires in the Central Plains several days ago that had been lifting northward but it is likely there are also other aerosols involved in the composition. 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