DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z April 23, 2011
Western Gulf of Mexico into the South Central United States: A large area of light to moderately dense smoke was seen over a large portion of the Western Gulf of Mexico and extending north through much of eastern Texas and into eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. The northeastward extent of the smoke was difficult to detect this evening due to widespread cloud cover over the South Central States. The source of this smoke is likely the large number of agricultural fires over central Mexico and also with the recent wildfire activity over northern Mexico. Southern New Mexico: An area of blowing dust originating from White Sands, New Mexico was lifting northeast into portions of Lincoln county in south central New Mexico. Western Texas: An area of blowing dust that appears to be originating from portions of western Andrews county was lifting rapidly northeast towards the Wichita Falls area. Pacific Northwest/Southwestern Canada: An area of aerosol, believed to be dust, was seen this evening over portions of the Pacific northwest and Southwestern Canada. The source region for this dust is believed to be from Eastern Asia. Hanna 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