DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z October 7, 2011
UPDATED AT 07/0930Z FOR BLOWING DUST AREA: Currently: North Central US/South Central Canada: Numerous agricultural fires mixed in with a few large wildfires are seen throughout North Dakota, Minnesota, southern Manitoba, and eastern Saskatchewan. Fires are clustered near the North Dakota-Manitoba border and in eastern Saskatchewan. Smoke from these fires is seen in the eastern half, but due to cloud cover the fires burning in parts of eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba the smoke cannot be seen. The residual smoke from these fires continue to spread into sections of eastern Quebec and western Ontario. Lower Mississippi Valley/Southeast/Middle Atlantic: Numerous agricultural fires are burning across this section of the country. A large cluster of fires are located in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and southeast Missouri. Many of them are producing light to moderately dense smoke which is creating an overall plume of moderately dense smoke moving west NW across Arkansas and Missouri. West Texas and New Mexico into Nebraska: A large area of blowing dust was seen this afternoon/evening over the region. One plume of the dust was detected originating from White Sands and vicinity in south central New Mexico and spreading to the northeast reaching far northeast New Mexico by sunset. A second area was seen originating over a broader area of west Texas in the Midland/Odessa area and spreading northward through the Texas Panhandle, western Oklahoma, western Kansas and into western Nebraska. Additional blowing dust was also being kicked up along the trajectory of the dust and contributing to the overall dust over these areas of the western Plains. All of this was being generated from a large storm system covering much of the Western US with strong winds gusting over 30 knots. Earlier Today: British Columbia: Thin remnant smoke could be seen over south and central British Columbia trapped between the Rockies and the Coastal Range. Numerous fires burning in the center of the province are responsible for this remnant smoke and some were producing new smoke this morning. Northeast US: An unknown aerosol could be seen streaming southeastward off the coast the Northeastern US today behind a frontal boundary now out over the Atlantic. The aerosol appeared to be moving southeastward from eastern Canada. J Kibler 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