DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z May 2, 2013
Eastern Pacific/Northwest US/Southwestern and South Central Canada: An extensive area of aerosol covers the eastern Pacific off the western US coast and stretches northeastward across northern California, the Pacific Northwest, northern Idaho, Montana, northwest North Dakota, southeast British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba. The bulk of this aerosol is believed to elevated dust that was transported from Asia though smoke from active fires in northern California, Oregon, and northeast Washington was also contributing to the aerosol mixture. Midwest/Ohio Valley/Great Lakes/Southeast Canada: Another large area of aerosol thought to consist of dust (possibly from Asia) and pollutants could be seen from northeast Missouri/east Iowa northeastward across Lake Michigan to east Ontario/southwest Quebec and eastward across the Ohio Valley/Michigan/Lake Huron. The aerosol mixture appeared most optically thick over southern Wisconsin, Lake Michigan, and western/northern Michigan. Central Oklahoma/Texas/Northwest Gulf of Mexico/New Mexico/Southwest Colorado/Arizona/south Utah/South Nevada: A strong cold front dropping southward through northwest Texas today and another frontal boundary across Arizona/New Mexico were causing strong surface winds that had kicked up quite a bit of blowing dust/sand by this evening. A thinner area of possibly day old/more elevated dust could be seen over central Oklahoma southward over the eastern half of Texas and the northwest Gulf of Mexico. Thicker dust was seen over southwest/west Texas, much of New Mexico, southwest Colorado, southern Utah, Arizona, and southern Nevada...mostly moving southward. Gulf of Mexico: A large area of thin to moderately dense smoke covers much of the Gulf of Mexico as numerous fires in Central America and Mexico continue to burn. The smoke stretched to just south of Louisiana where it became obscured by thick clouds. Sheffler 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