DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1830Z April 09, 2011
Gulf of Mexico: Thin to moderate density remnant smoke covered most of the Gulf of Mexico this morning. Much of this smoke was drifting northward from Mexico although some was also originating from Cuba. In addition, remnant smoke from fires in the southeast had expanded southward across Florida and was sinking southward in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Southeast US: Remnant smoke from fires in the southeast US and possibly also from those in the central US over the past few days was spilling off the Georgia and South Carolina coasts across the Atlantic. Some of this smoke was moderate in density. Central US: A fairly large area of smoke was present over the central US this morning, stretching from Illinois/Iowa southwest to Oklahoma/north Texas. This smoke likely is a combination from several areas of fires, from those is Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and especially those in northern Mexico. Moderately dense to dense remnant smoke was seen over north Texas, Oklahoma, and drifting into Arkansas. Northern Mexico/West Texas/New Mexico: Strong winds of 30-40 kts over north central Mexico, New Mexico, and west Texas causing several point sources of dust/sand to be picked up and blown to the northeast. Two or three plumes of blowing dust could be seen southwest of El Paso, Texas with surface ob reports of haze or blowing dust at Pecos, TX and Albuquerque, NM. 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