DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z May 9, 2011
East of Coastal North Carolina/Western Atlantic: Cloudiness covered the 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) for much of the day. A smoke plume was still visible moving to the southeast from this fire as the clouds broke late in the day though details concerning the extent and density of the plume were difficult to determine due to the cloudiness. Southeastern US/Southwestern Atlantic: Dense smoke continued to move to the east during the day and across the Jacksonville FL metro area from the large wildfire burning in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Georgia near the Florida border (also known as the Honey Prairie wildfire). A large area of remnant smoke from this fire and partly from the eastern North Carolina fire was observed well off the Southeast coast over the Atlantic moving off to the east. Southwestern US/South Central US/Central US/Mid and Lower Mississippi Valley: Moderately dense to locally dense smoke was visible during the afternoon and early evening from several fires in the South Central and Southwestern US. The most active fires were located in northwestern and southwestern Texas, southwestern Kansas, southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and over northwestern Mexico just south of the Arizona border. The smoke plumes from all of these fires were moving in a northeasterly direction. Farther to the east and northeast, a large area of thin density leftover smoke likely due to all of the above mentioned active fires in the South Central and Southwestern US was analyzed across a good portion of the Central Plains extending eastward over the Mid Mississippi Valley and southeastward across the Lower Mississippi Valley. Also, areas of blowing dust were observed moving to the northeast across western Texas from point sources in western Texas between Midland and Lubbock. Another streak of blowing dust moved northeast from northern Mexico across the border near El Paso Texas. Southern California/Southern Nevada: More blowing dust from a few sources in southeastern California and southern Nevada near and around Las Vegas NV was detected spreading to the northeast. Gulf of Mexico: A large mass of what is likely thin density smoke from the ongoing seasonal fires burning in Mexico and Central America was visible across the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico. The smoke extended northward, but it was not known how far it reached due to cloudiness in the western Gulf of Mexico. JS 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