DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z March 28, 2011
Mexico: Large fires in Coahuila are producing smoke which is moving generally to the east and entering Texas in Val Verde, Edwards, Kinney and Maverick counties. Fires have been observed burning in this area of Mexico over the past few days. Patches of moderate smoke may be entering the United States. Along with the fires in Coahuila, numerous smoke plumes were viewed this evening in Chihuahua. Illinois/Iowa/Indiana Numerous fires were seen in satellite imagery this evening across eastern Iowa, northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana. Smoke detection in this area, however, was difficult due to increasing cloud cover. Please refer to the earlier analysis for additional information. Myrga Earlier today: Gulf of Mexico: A large area of thin remnant smoke continues to stream northward from fires burning in Mexico. Moderately dense smoke could be seen in the Gulf of Campeche as well. As this remnant smoke reached the northern Gulf, it is seen moving eastward towards Florida. Southeast US Coast/Florida/Bahamas: A plume of thin to moderate density smoke was seen this morning lifting northward across the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, southern Florida, and the Bahamas. This area of remnant smoke likely came from the fires in Cuba over the past 2-3 days and was merging with the smoke over the Gulf that originated in Mexico and with smoke off the Southeast US Coast. This allowed for nearly complete coverage of thin smoke across the state of Florida with smoke stretching northeast over the Atlantic. Some pockets of moderately dense smoke were present east of Florida and southeast of South Carolina and most likely came from fires in the southeast, particularly those that were producing large amounts of smoke in southern Georgia the past few days. Cuba: Thin smoke was lifting north from western Cuba this morning as a result of the fires that were burning in that part of the country yesterday. Southern Canada/Great Lakes Region: Two areas of an unknown aerosol were present over the Great Lakes region. The first covered southeast Ontario, extreme southwest Quebec, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, Lake Superior, part of the U.P. Of Michigan, and the northern part of lower Michigan. The second area covered southern Michigan, southern Lake Michigan, Illinois, northern Indiana, and southeast Wisconsin. This area of aerosol was seen a bit further north yesterday and was thought to possibly be made up of several day's old smoke, but there is a possibility that some of what is being seen is dust or pollution as well. 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