DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z April 16, 2011
Southeast US/Central and Eastern Gulf of Mexico: A plume of thin smoke was moving eastward across the northern Gulf of Mexico and southeaster U.S. this morning in conjunction with movement of a frontal boundary. On the far southwest end of this plume and across the western Gulf of Mexico, smoke became moderately dense. Much of this smoke was entrained by this frontal boundary as it moved across the Central Plains over the past day or so and because of that, most of the smoke is believed to have come from the wildfires in west and west central Texas, southwest Oklahoma, and northern Mexico. Another area of older remnant smoke can be seen a little further off the southeast US coast and is probably the same area of smoke that came from the numerous fires in the Southeast on Thursday. Northeast Mexico/Texas/Western Gulf of Mexico: This morning, thin to moderate density smoke was still lingering over west central Texas and the Texas panhandle from the large wildfires still burning over portions of Texas and northern Mexico. In this part of the state, remnant smoke was drifting northwestward across the panhandle and into eastern New Mexico/southwest Oklahoma. Clockwise flow from surface high pressure over the center of Texas also has remnant smoke in the eastern parts of the state rotating southward across the western Gulf and then southwest into deep southern Texas/northeast Mexico, where it eventually starts to wrap back around to the north. There was a small patch of remaining dense smoke still that was moving across southern Texas towards the Gulf of Mexico. Central Plains: Airborne dust particles from yesterday's large blowing dust event from Colorado/Kansas to Texas/Oklahoma could still be seen this morning across southeast Nebraska/eastern Kansas/eastern Oklahoma/northeast Texas/Arkansas/north Louisiana/and Mississippi. This elevated dust plume may stretch even further but it could not be seen from the GOES-W imagery. Southern California/Baja California: A large area of aerosol believed to dust that traveled from east Asia could still be seen off the southern California coast and west of Baja California. It was generally drifting southward. 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