DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2345Z February 15, 2012
Gulf of Mexico: A narrow smoke plume was seen drifting westward from the northwest coast of Cuba into the Gulf. A fire south of Sarasota generated a smoke plume that drifted westward about 100km off the coast into the Gulf by sunset. West Texas: Strong winds associated with a cold front were generating an area of blowing dust over west Texas. Near sunset the dust extended from near Midland northeastward to near Wichita Falls and across the Red River into southern Oklahoma. California: Northerly winds behind a storm system over southern California were kicking up blowing dust in the San Joaquin valley from near Merced southward to the mountains north of Santa Barbara. 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