DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z April 30, 2011
A particularly poor air quality day across much of the South Central US where a large amount of smoke is mixed well with sand/dust making the satellite imagery particularly murky and thick. Gulf of Mexico: Moderate smoke, with embedded areas of heavy smoke, continues to linger south of the frontal boundary along the SW tip of South FLA extending back into the central Gulf where southerly flow has returned from the Yucatan Peninsula across the western Gulf and Bay of Campeche where it is the strongest. As such return moderately dense smoke can be seen to along the TX coastline to the LA/TX boarder. Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas/Louisiana/Arkansas/Missouri/Nebraska: Light to moderate smoke extends northward from the aforementioned moderately dense area in the Gulf ahead of next strong upper level system moving out of the northern US Rockies...extending as far as SE Nebraska and east into MO/AR/LA. More significant smoke is being added by the west TX fires (mainly the Deaton Cole fire) and Mexican Plateau fires. The smoke is rapidly moving north across TX and OK then beginning to turn more anticyclonically eastward over MO and moving E across AR/LA attm. Other smoke plumes are currently attached to their source fires but are generally mixing with the smoke area described above as well as sand/dust storms described below. Sand/Dust: White Sands NM/Texas/Oklahoma: Very dense sand can be seen blowing ENE into the central northern TX panhandle from the White Sands desert of NM. Dense sand and loose soils across the Cap Rock of eastern NM and West Texas (north of the western panhandle) is blowing NE across all of the northern TX panhandle into western Oklahoma. This along with the smoke from the Deaton Cole fire clearly distinguishes the dry line and shows significant low level convergence along it making it particularly dense. N Arizona/New Mexico and West Texas panhandle: Elsewhere in TX, and NM, thin to moderately dense sand/dust can be seen from nearly all desert source regions including the NE plateau of AZ moving due east to ENE covering all of NE AZ, all of NM and the northern counties of the western TX panhandle to the SE NM corner (ie Loving county). Additional salt/sand is being blown out of the salt/sand flats of N Chihuahua into West TX. California: Thin to moderately dense sand can be seen from source regions in the central San Joaquin Valley (particularly Merced and Madera counties) covering most of the S and SW portions of the valley and starting to move over the Sierra Madre Mtns to the coastal portions of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Sea of Cortez and surrounding deserts: The driest/treeless deserts of coastal Sonara near Isla Tiburon is the source of some thin blowing dust moving ENE extending to the central Sierra Madre Occidental Mtns of E Sonara state. Additionally some valleys that funnel winds eastward to kick out some light sand/dust particularly along Baja California near Canal de Ballenas and extend maybe 15 miles into the Sea at best. Gallina 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