Tuesday, April 5, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z April 06, 2011

Pacific Northwest through Southwestern Canada and the Northcentral
United States:
This evenings satellite imagery indicated a Trans-Pacific transport of
blowing dust, likely from east Asia, has begun to enter the Pacific
Northwest and portions of southwestern Canada and the north central
United States.

Northern Mexico and South Texas:
Several large fires continue to burn over northern Coahuila this evening
just south of the Big Bend Region of Texas.  These fires have combined
to produce a large moderate to extremely dense smoke plume that was
drifting east into portions of South Texas.  Also, a large area of
thin smoke was evident over the western Gulf of Mexico and portions of
extreme South Texas.  It is believed that this smoke is remnant smoke
from the ongoing fires over Coahuila and also from the large number of
agricultural fires over Central and Southern Mexico.

Hanna


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

 


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.