Friday, April 29, 2011

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

 


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.