DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z April 10, 2011
Northern Mexico/West Texas/New Mexico/Oklahoma/Kansas: Significant blowing dust event throughout the day today. Dust was seen originating from numerous point sources across the state of Chihuahua, Mexico and moving toward the northeast. By sunset, areas of dense blowing dust were seen as far north as extreme southeast Colorado. The dust spread across central and eastern New Mexico and into western Texas before mixing in with areas of dense smoke. Several brush fires broke out across eastern NM and western TX this afternoon/evening and were producing dense smoke, which was tracking to the northeast. This made distinguishing between dust/smoke difficult as it moved away from its source point. However, mostly smoke moved toward OK and into KS by sunset where it merged with lighter remnant smoke of the past few days. In addition to what was discussed earlier today (see below) there was an area of light smoke analyzed in south central Texas and northern Mexico. These areas were moving north and are likely remnant from the days fires burning in south central Mexico. Tennessee/Northern Alabama/Northern Georgia: An earlier area of light to moderately dense smoke over the central US was now seen drifting through Tennessee and into portions of northern Alabama and northern Georgia. This is still remnant from fires in KS, OK, TX and northern Mexico. Smoke analyzed this morning continued to persist this evening in the Gulf of Mexico and off the southeast coast of the US. See below for the narrative from earlier today: 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. Earle/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