Monday, April 2, 2012

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0015Z April 3, 2012


Wisconsin to South Carolina:
An elongated area of mostly light smoke was seen stretching from southern
Wisconsin through much of Illinois, southern Indiana, much of Kentucky,
eastern Tennessee and all of South Carolina and then extending off the
coast into the Atlantic. This area of smoke was pooled along a frontal
system across the area and is remnant smoke from days of agricultural
and prescribe burning in the Central Plains.

Western Gulf and Texas/Louisiana Coasts:
Remnant light smoke from the seasonal burning in Central America has
drifted north across the western Gulf of Mexico and now covers much
of the Gulf west of 90W and has pushed as far west as San Antonio and
west of McAllen. Smoke may have also drifted further north into eastern
Oklahoma but clouds over the area have inhibited this determination.

Arkansas/Missouri/Kansas:
Numerous fires were burning across southern Missouri, northern Arkansas
and eastern Kansas with associated smoke plumes that were moving to
the north.

Blowing Dust

A deep storm center over New Mexico was producing strong winds over the
southwest Plains from northern Mexico into west Texas that was kicking
up a broad area of blowing dust. The dust was mainly originating from
several sources in northern Chihuahua and west Texas in the vicinity
of Midland and Lubbock. The dust was curling counterclockwise across
the region and extended to near Wichita Falls and the Texas Panhandle
by sunset. Another smaller area of blowing dust was seen this afternoon
north of the storm center in the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve of
south central Colorado. This area was moving o the west.

Remnant blowing dust was mixing with some smoke from the fires noted
above and moving north northeast ahead of a cold front and extended from
eastern Kansas into Iowa.

An area of blowing dust was detected moving south into the northern Gulf
of California.

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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.