Tuesday, May 10, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 11, 2011

Southeast US Coast/Atlantic/Eastern Gulf of Mexico:
A large area of smoke stretches across the East Coast from North Carolina
south to Florida and across the state into the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The
two main sources of the seen smoke are the wildfires burning in Eastern
North Carolina (Pains Bay wildfire) and in southeast Georgia (Honey Prarie
wildfire)  There is moderately dense to dense smoke moving west across
northern/central Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.  Residual smoke from
across northern Mexico and the western/central US is also contributing
to the overall smoke across the southeast/Atlantic/Eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Central to Northern Plains:
Remnant smoke from the wildfires in West Texas and New Mexico continues to
lift to the northeast this morning/afternoon and is seen over portions
of northern Kansas, east-central Nebraska, southeast South Dakota
(moderately dense).  Light smoke extends farther east moving into
southwest Minnesota, western Iowa and northeast Missouri.

Blowing Dust/Sand:
A large area of blowing dust/sand can be seen coming from White Sands
New Mexico.  The dust/sand extends to the northeast almost reaching New
Mexico's border with Oklahoma and Texas.

J Kibler/Salemi


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.