Sunday, May 22, 2011

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1730Z May 22, 2011

Northern Mexico/Texas:
Remnant smoke continues to spread northeastward/eastward from fires in
western Mexico (Chihuahua).  Portions of this plume reached central Texas,
including the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and Austin.

Northeastern Mexico/Gulf of Mexico/South Central US/Southeastern US:
An extremely large mass of what is believed to be primarily smoke
continues to cover northeastern Mexico, and portions of the South Central
and Southeastern US. Embedded moderately dense to even dense smoke was
present over northeastern Mexico, the western Gulf of Mexico. This huge
area of smoke was likely from a number of sources including seasonal
fires over Mexico and Central America as well as some contribution in
the Southeastern US and over the southwestern Atlantic from fires in
southeastern Georgia and eastern North Carolina.

Myrga/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

 


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.