DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z February 24, 2013
Western Gulf of Mexico: Mainly thin density smoke combined with other atmospheric pollutants was visible moving to the north from southeastern Mexico over the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico. Cloudiness farther to the north off the Texas and Louisiana coast limited additional information concerning the northern extent of the aerosol in satellite imagery. Southern Florida: Thin density smoke and other atmospheric pollutants spread from western Cuba to the north during the day across portions of the Florida Keys. Central US: A tremendous number of fires were detected in satellite imagery primarily across Nebraska, western Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. However, little or no smoke was seen in satellite imagery since many of the fires were very small and since snow was present on the ground in this region which is an unfavorable background for detecting smoke in satellite imagery. The fires are believed to be mainly land use burns which have increased in recent days due to the snow cover which limits the threat of fire spread. California/Arizona: A swath of thin to moderately dense blowing dust was observed moving to the southeast from point sources centered near and around Bakersfield, California. The area of blowing dust moved across interior southeastern California and into west central Arizona just prior to sunset. Northwestern Mexico: A small streak of thin density blowing dust originated from a source in northwestern Mexico, just south of the border with southwestern New Mexico. The very thin streak of blowing dust moved in the general direction of El Paso, Texas. JS 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