Thursday, April 14, 2011

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

 


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.