Sunday, May 8, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1615Z May 8, 2011

East of Coastal North Carolina/Western Atlantic:
An area of moderately dense remnant smoke is seen moving to the southeast
of 75 degrees west longitude. Smoke is likely from a large wildfire that
has been burning  in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge along
the Hyde/Dare county line in eastern North Carolina (also known as the
Pains Bay wildfire).

Southeastern US/Southwestern Atlantic:
Moderately dense remnant smoke observed moving to the east-southeast of
coastal South Carolina/coastal and southeastern Georgia/east coast of
Florida. Majority of this smoke is likely from a large wildfire burning
in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Georgia near
the Florida border (also known as the Honey Prairie wildfire). Area of
remnant smoke has moved south and east from where is was located during
the previous day.  Smoke can be seen extending across the southwestern
Atlantic beyond 68 degrees west longitude.

Southwestern and South Central US:
Morning GOES-WEST visible satellite imagery shows large area of
remnant smoke across portions of eastern New Mexico/southeastern
Colorado/southwest Kansas/Oklahoma/northern and central
Texas/Arkansas/southern Missouri with embedded areas of moderately
dense smoke.  Embedded areas of moderately dense smoke were seen over
northern panhandle of Texas/western Oklahoma/southwestern Kansas, over
north-central Oklahoma and then last area is across central Arkansas.
Smoke is likely attributed to several fires that were burning yesterday
across Oklahoma in addition to a handful of large wildfires that have been
burning across northern Texas/southern New Mexico for the past few days.

Warren


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.