Tuesday, April 9, 2013

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z April 10, 2013

Currently:

Gulf of Mexico:
The smoke seem over the Gulf of Mexico before mentioned in the smoke
text from the morning continued to move northward and was visible over
most of east Texas at sunset. It is possible that the smoke may extend
into Oklahoma and Arkansas, however cloudiness over the central U.S. is
obscuring the view.

Blowing Dust/Sand:

Blowing dust from yesterday's storm located over western Texas was still
visible today. The area converged with moving smoke plumes from the Gulf
of Mexico which could be seen over southern Texas. Additional blowing
dust plumes were moving NE from Mexico towards west Texas contributed
to the large area of dust.

-LP/SO

Earlier Today:

Gulf of Mexico:
A large area of light to moderately dense smoke extends from southern
Mexico/Central America through the western Gulf of Mexico into eastern
Texas and southern Louisiana.  This area likely consists of remnant
smoke from agricultural burns throughout Central America and Mexico.


Blowing Dust/Sand:
In the first visible images today, significant areas of blowing dust can
be seen in the Southwest US into Mexico.  A detached area of blowing
dust/sand is located from the Baja Peninsula to Sonora and is moving
to the south.  A larger, more dense area of blowing dust/sand stretches
from northern Chihuahua, where small pockets are still generating more
blowing dust/sand, north through eastern New Mexico up to the Colorado
border.  There also appears to be a small pocket of blowing dust/sand
in northern Texas / Oklahoma panhandle area.  Extensive cloudiness
in the central plains obscures viewing the full extent of the blowing
dust/sand but models suggest the area may extend well into the central
plains effecting the majority of western Oklahoma and Kansas as well as
southeastern Colorado.

-Salemi

THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS
OF 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.