DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 18, 2011
Mid-Atlantic: An area of light remnant smoke was seen off the mid Atlantic coast extending eastward from the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is likely remnant smoke from the Lateral West fire in the Great Dismal Swamp. Clouds over the fire itself are hindering smoke detection through the noon hour. Western Gulf of Mexico/Southeast Texas: An area of light remnant smoke was seen over the region. The area extended south from the Louisiana coast to near 24N93W and was moving the the west-northwest into east Texas. There was a small patch of moderately dense smoke on the leading edge of the larger mass of smoke. This patch was southwest of the Dallas metroplex moving to the northwest. Most of the remnant smoke is likely from fires over Louisiana and the Florida panhandle yesterday. Northern Plains: A broad area of light smoke stretched across much of eastern Montana and North Dakota this morning with the southern extent crossing into northern South Dakota. There was also a small area of moderately dense smoke along the eastern edge moving thru central North Dakota. This is likely remnant smoke from numerous fires last evening burning over western Montana and northern Idaho. Central Plains: A broad area of light remnant smoke was seen over southeast South Dakota extending southward over eastern Nebraska and Kansas and into southwest Missouri. This smoke was generated from the Ray May fire in western Nevada near Lake Tahoe and had drifted east and then mainly south overnight into this morning. Utah/Idaho/Wyoming/Colorado: A thin ribbon of light smoke was seen stretching from southeast Idaho into western Wyoming. A patch of smoke was over northeast Utah into northwest Colorado. Both areas were moving to the east and were likely from the Ray May fire in western Nevada. Northern Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula of Michigan: A pair of small, light smoke plumes were seen drifting across northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan along the Lake Michigan shoreline. This is remnant smoke from fires over northwest Minnesota and southern Saskatchewan last evening. Western Atlantic over the Bahamas: A broad area of light blowing dust has made its way westward across the Atlantic from the Sahara and was seen over the northern Bahamas and was slowly lifting north. Ruminski 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