DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z April 15, 2011
Currently: Central Plains/Mid Mississippi Valley/Ohio Valley/Great Lakes region: Light remnant smoke seen earlier today in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri has moved farther east into Iowa, southern Wisconsin and Michigan, much of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio and parts of western Kentucky and Tennessee. There is most likely smoke across a large section of the Mississippi Valley but due to cloud cover it cannot be seen in GOES-13 satellite imagery. Texas/Louisiana/Gulf of Mexico: Light smoke from fires burning in northern Mexico and remnant smoke from ongoing seasonal fires burning across the rest of Mexico and Central America continues to move east into the western Gulf of Mexico and northerly into Texas, Louisiana and southern Arkansas. Western/Southern Texas: High winds across parts of western Texas has started several large wildfires producing moderately dense to dense smoke moving east into central Texas. The large wildfires across northern Mexico are emitting very heavy smoke moving east into southern Texas and combining with remnant smoke from fires burning across other parts of Mexico and Central America which that smoke is moving north. Southern California/Baja California/Western Mexico: A large area of thin to moderately dense aerosol, most likely blowing dust originating from central/east Asia can be seen over a large section of southern California, Baja California and moving east into western Mexico. The evening sun angle provided a great view of the dust in GOES-13 imagery. J Kibler Earlier Today: Central Plain and Mid Mississippi Valley: Light remnant smoke from the long burning fires in northern Mexico, west Texas and the agricultural burning in Kansas and vicinity, was mixed in with clouds this morning. The smoke was over eastern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas, much of Arkansas and Missouri and possibly extending into Illinois and Indiana. Gulf of Mexico: Smoke from the ongoing seasonal fires burning in Mexico and Central America remains over much of the western half of the Gulf of Mexico. Some of this smoke has likely moved inland over southern Louisiana and southern and southeastern Texas although cloudiness interfered with determining the full extent of the smoke. New Mexico and West Texas: An area of what appears to be light blowing dust was seen moving eastward across northeast and east central New Mexico into the western Texas Panhandle. This is likely dust still suspended in the atmosphere from blowing dust observed last evening across portions of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. A separate area of blowing dust was originating this morning from near Midland Texas and was also moving to the east. Southern Ontario: An area of aerosol was faintly visible in the early morning just after sunrise across a swath of southern Ontario extending from eastern Lake Winnipeg to the north shore of Lake Superior. This aerosol is possibly an area of blowing dust (as indicated in by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) aerosol forecast model) that originated from central/east Asia. Southern California: An area of thin aerosol, believed to be long range transport of blowing dust from central/east Asia (as depicted by NRL) was seen over the western Channel Islands off the southern California coast and extended out to about 30N130W. Ruminski 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