DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 3, 2012
South Central US/Southwest/Northern and Northwestern Mexico: A large area of what is believed to be thin density left over blowing dust from yesterday and overnight was visible moving to the south across southwestern Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Arizona, southern California, northwestern Mexico, and offshore over the eastern Pacific. Moderately dense to locally dense blowing dust/sand spread to the south during the afternoon from the White Sands region of south central New Mexico. The most dense blowing dust/sand moved southward and very close to El Paso, Texas just before sunset. Many other sources of blowing dust were visible over east central and Southeastern New Mexico, western Texas(to the west of Lubbock), and northern Mexico(just south of the New Mexico border). These additional sources and the dust/sand from White Sands all contributed to widespread blowing dust across the region. Additional blowing dust was visible moving to the south and southeast from a number of source regions over northern Baja, and northwestern and western Mexico (particularly from the western portion of the state of Sonora). Southern Florida/Cuba: Numerous fires were analyzed during the day over Cuba, while smoke plumes associated with these fires moved mainly in a northerly direction. Some of the left over thin density smoke attributed to fires from previous day(s) moved to the north and northwest, possibly passing over the far western Florida Keys. JS 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