DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z April 10, 2012
Gulf of Mexico: Large patches of thin remnant smoke were present over the Northern Gulf of Mexico this morning, from just west of Florida to the southern Texas. There were also 2 plumes of moderately dense to dense smoke coming from the County Line fire that continues to burn along the Baker/Columbia county border in northern Florida. One plume was streaming to the southwest while the other was moving eastward. Much of the remnant smoke over the Gulf has come from this large wildfire over the past 2-3 days although numerous other fires in the Southeast US were also producing smoke yesterday that likely contributed. Atlantic Coast: A large area of smoke stretched northeastward from the eastern Florida coast along and slightly behind a frontal boundary. Further north off the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast US coasts, additional remnant smoke mixed with other unknown aerosols was seen with the believed smoke wrapping back towards New Jersey and a separate area east/northeast of Massachusetts. This smoke is from a mix of sources as numerous agricultural fires in the Southeast US yesterday produced smoke along with a handful of wildfires that broke out in the Mid-Atlantic yesterday due to very dry, windy conditions. Southwest/South Central Canada and North Central US: An extensive area of aerosol is seen stretching from southern Alberta/southern Saskatchewan southeastward across the northern Plains states reaching the whole way to Illinois/Missouri and northeast Kansas. This aerosol has been slowly sinking southward across Kansas and south/southeast across Missouri/Illinois this morning. The aerosol is believed to be elevated dust from Asia that has been transported across the Pacific. Sheffler 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