Saturday, April 16, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z April 17, 2011

Southeast US/Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic Coast:
An area of moderately dense smoke extends eastward across the entire
Gulf of Mexico and has moved into western Florida.  Lighter smoke is seen
moving across central/eastern Florida and into the Atlantic and along the
east coast.  It also extends across southeast Alabama, southern/central
Georgia and southern South Carolina.  The smoke is in conjunction with
the movement of a frontal boundary.

Northeast Mexico/Texas/Louisiana:
A tremendous amount of smoke is stretching across the entire state of
Texas as wildfires continue to burn in west Texas and other fires along
the Gulf Coast and northern sections of the state.  Moderately dense
to dense smoke spreads across a large section of western Texas, the
Panhandle and along the Gulf Coast.  Lighter smoke extends from central
to eastern Texas and is moving east into western Louisiana.  There are
some pockets of moderately dense smoke in central Texas.

Central Plains:
Airborne dust particles seen in Nebraska/eastern Kansas/eastern
Oklahoma/northeast Texas/Arkansas/north Louisiana/and Mississippi this
morning has moved into parts of Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee and Alabama.
Although its getting more difficult to see as the dust particles have
become very light.

Southern California/Baja California:
A large area of aerosol believed to be dust that traveled from east Asia
could still be seen off the southern California coast and west of Baja
California. This area is moving south along the coastline.

Kansas/Missouri:
Numerous fires (most likely ag burns) burning across central/eastern
Kansas are producing light smoke.  The smoke is combining to make a small
pocket of smoke extending across eastern Kansas and western Missouri.

Western Mexico (east of Baja California/Gulf of California)
Numerous dust plumes between 30.18N/28.27N and 110W/111W can be seen
moving east NE across western/northern Mexico.  The dust is moderately
thick.

J Kibler

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.