DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0800Z August 13, 2011
Western Ontario: Three wildfires burning in far western Ontario very near to the Manitoba border are producing localized areas of thin to moderate density smoke. The smoke is moving generally in the south direction. Mid-Atlantic Coast: The Lateral West fire in the Great Dismal Swamp along the Virginia-North Carolina border continues to emit large amounts of moderately dense to locally dense smoke. The smoke plume initially moves due north but then takes on a circular motion in the clockwise direction as a result of a surface high pressure system in the vicinity. Thin to moderate density smoke extends as far north as southern Pennsylvania, covering much of eastern Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. The smoke then moves offshore into the western Atlantic, turns south, and then re-enters the US in northeast North Carolina. Very dense smoke is observed in the southeast and east central parts of Virginia. Southeast US: An aerosol of unknown composition and origin is visible in the far northeast Gulf of Mexico and across northern Florida into the coastal Atlantic. The boundaries of this aerosol are confined to the coasts of Florida and Georgia by the stationary front that is positioned from east to west off the coast of South Carolina. Smoke aerosols are also present in the region from a few fires in northern Florida and southern Georgia that were observed to be producing very localized smoke plumes this morning. Ramirez THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE 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 ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov