DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z April 18, 2012
Mid-Atlantic: Thin density remnant smoke could be seen drifting off the Mid-Atlantic coast of the US. It was tracking southeastward ahead of a surface cold frontal boundary. This area of remnant smoke is the result of numerous fires in the eastern US over the past few days. Gulf of Mexico: A relatively small area of detached thin density smoke from fires burning across Cuba is tracking slowly northward across the southeastern region of the Gulf of Mexico. Northwest Mexico: Remnant and recently detached smoke plumes are seen across portions of northern Mexico this evening. Smoke plume extends across the Mexico states of southern Sonora, southwestern Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and western Durango. Fires burning in the Mexican states of Durango, Sinaloa and Chihuahua are believed to be the source of this smoke, which is drifting slowly north and west. Great Lakes: Unknown aerosol could still be seen in GOES-EAST imagery stretching across the Central Great Lakes region. Based on the analysis from this morning, it is likely that this area of aerosols still extends south and west across the Central Plains. Due to the warming land surface temperatures it is more difficult to detect this area of aerosols over land, but the cooler surface lake temperatures make identifying this aerosol plume much easier. It is possible that aerosols are the remnants of the large blowing dust event that occurred over the southwest U.S. this past weekend that has now become elevated. Southwest U.S.: Area of unknown aerosol was seen drifting east-southeast across southern California northern Baja is evening GOES-EAST satellite imagery. It's possible that aerosol may be dust from Asia that tracked across the Pacific. Warren 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