DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z December 20, 2012

South Florida:
A small area of thin smoke produced by numerous fires west and south of
Lake Okeechobee today could be seen over southern Florida moving eastward
towards the Atlantic.

Western Gulf of Mexico:
A large amount of an unknown aerosol could be seen over portions of
the Mexican coastline and over the western Gulf of Mexico waters. The
unknown aerosol was expanding northward.

New Mexico/Northwest Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas:
An exorbitant amount of blowing dust was present over far northern
Mexico/eastern and southern New Mexico/west and northwest Texas/western
Oklahoma/and southern Kansas as strong winds from a powerful storm over
the Central Plains move across the region. This dust was moving eastward
across New Mexico/Texas and northeastward across Oklahoma/Kansas.

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

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.