DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z April 28, 2012
Smoke: Western Gulf of Mexico and Texas: Remnant mainly light smoke from the seasonal agricultural burning in the Yucatan and adjoining areas covers much of the western Gulf of Mexico this evening and extends northward into east Texas and along the Louisiana/Texas border. A ribbon of quite thin smoke was seen drifting northward through central Texas near sunset from roughly San Angelo to Wichita Falls. This is likely remnant smoke from fires in West Texas or northern Mexico overnight. Atlantic Coast: An area of mostly thin smoke was seen pooled along a frontal boundary along and off the North Carolina Coast. Blowing Dust: Texas/Oklahoma: An area of moderately dense to dense blowing dust, much of which has become elevated, was seen extending from west Texas near Midland and Lubbock and extending to the northeast across Childress and into central and northeast Oklahoma. Remnant thin dust from Thursday afternoon/evening was still seen this evening on the back edge of a cloud mass in southwest Missouri. Additional thin dust was possibly mixed with smoke over portions of southeast Oklahoma and east Texas. Uncertain aerosol: Northern Great Lakes and Ontario: A broad area of aerosol was seen near sunset dropping southeast across Lakes Superior and Huron and also covering much of Ontario province. This is likely long range transport from Asia but the composition is uncertain. The Naval Research Lab aerosol forecast model suggests this is dust, while a NASA model is suggesting smoke. 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