DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z June 10, 2012
Mid Mississippi Valley: Thin smoke (with a bit of haze/pollution from cities along the Mississippi River mixed in) can be seen covering S IA, all of MO, SW half of IL, SW tip of IN and likely over N AR and the Mississippi River Valley in TN/MS. This is from numerous agricultural burns in the Bootheel of MO, and Mississippi River Valley in AR/MS. This smoke is generally moving north, though western extents are moving W and NW under the influence of the western trof approaching. The western boundary is difficult to discern with low level smoke from the KS/SW MO fires described below and the higher altitude smoke from the Little Bear fire and Whitewater-Baldy Fires to also be described in further detail below Central United States: Low level smoke from the last two days of agricultural burning across OK and SE KS has begun to converge and increase in moderate density in the lower levels of the atmosphere (around boundary layer inversion). The smoke is moving due north then being pulled back NW toward the developing sfc cyclone over the US/Canadian boarder in central ND. Smoke covers the eastern half of ND, eastern third of SE, NW and far western counties of MN and NE Nebraska where it thins out a bit and melds with low level smoke from today's burnings across KS and SE NE. Aloft: Moderate smoke from midday and evening at the Cow Camp fire in WY can be tracked across the Arrowhead of MN into SW lake Superior, far western UP of MI and far northern counties of WI. Thin smoke in the low levels likely from this same fire (though from early morning yesterday)... this extends further east across the rest of the UP and Lake Superior. Southern and Central US Plains: Very dense smoke aloft mainly from yesterday's output from the Little Bear Fire in the Sacramento Mtns in E NM can be seen covering from Liberal KS south to the Big Bend in TX with an average width about 200km but as wide as 350km from around Lubbock, TX to Wichita Falls, TX. Thin to moderate smoke from these complexes reaches as far north as S Manitoba, west as the longitude of Eastern Colorado boarder (102W), E as the KS/MO boarder South to the Big Bend of TX/Austin TX. New very dense smoke can be seen moving due east from the PyroCBs from the Little Bear Fire and moderately dense smoke from the Whitewater-Baldy Fire covers a large swath of NM. A fire on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande on the central county boarder of Hudspeth county is also strongly contributing to the thin and moderately dense smoke across Central and S TX. Dust/Sand: Utah: Moderately dense dust and sand from the Bonneville Salt Flats in NW Tooele county, UT starting being kicked up around 1930Z starting to move due East but around 21Z a wind shift from the north began to send the dust/salt toward the south-southeast and it now extends to I-70 in Millard/Sevier counties (about 100km) and is about 91km wide from west to east covering a very large portion of Millard and Beaver counties. Nevada: The Carson sink in N Churchill county, the Gabbs Valley Dry Lake bed and other dry lake beds across Esmeralda county (particularly near Silver Peak,NV) and Mud Lake in west central Nye county have combined blowing dust and sand that into a large plume of moderate density that covers all of Mineral county, NV, the western half of Churchill county and the northern half of Inyo county CA. Four Corners Region: A large area of thin dust is being kicked up across N Navajo and Apache counties in AZ and San Juan and western McKinley that is moving NW as far east as US-285 in NM and US-160 in SW CO. Embedded within this large area are individual sources that have increased density of sand; for example a narrow valley north of Gallup, NM and north of the Fallen Timber Ridge, and canyons around Pinon and Kykotsmovi Village in Navajo county AZ. New Mexico: White Sands desert has thin sand/dust being kicked up from due west winds moving the sand across N Otero, NW Eddy, SW Chaves and far S Lincoln counties. The sand is being obscured by the outer anvil of the PyroCBs associated with the Little Bear fire. S Arizona/N Sonora: Moderate to dense sand from west winds wrapping around the mountain peak east of Caborca,Sonora converge and funnel east across a narrow valley then moves north into S AZ through the Altar Valley as far north and east as the Pima county line with Santa Cruz/NW Cochise and SE Pinal county lines. S California/N Baja: Strong down slope winds across the western Imperial Valley is kicking up moderately dense sand/dust that is racing across Imperial county/Salton Sea, beginning to enter W Yuma and SW La Paz counties. The dust/sand is about as wide as Imperial county. Fingers of moderately dense sand/dust are moving north across far NE Baja California from the desert/high albedo sand flats south fo the agricultural lands west of the Colorado River. This sand is covering the agricultural lands and is beginning to meld as it turns more NE and then E along the US boarder melding with the sand storm from Imperial county. 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