DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 15, 2013

Gulf of Mexico to southern Plains:
A large area of mostly light density smoke from the seasonal agricultural
burning in Mexico and Central America could be seen covering much of
the western Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan to near the Texas/Louisiana
border and extending into central Oklahoma.

Wisconsin/Minnesota:
A pair of large fires developed this afternoon/evening in central
Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. Moderately dense to locally dense smoke
plumes were detected, with the smoke from the Minnesota fire moving to
the east into Wisconsin and the smoke from the fire in Wisconsin moving
to the northeast into western Lake Superior and the western portion of
upper Michigan.

Gulf coast:
Light to moderately dense smoke from fires in southern Mississippi and
the Florida Panhandle was moving south into the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Blowing Dust:
Northern Plains:
An area of light aerosol, most likely dust from Asia, was seen over the
northern Plains from the Dakotas to Minnesota and drifting to the east.

Southern California/southwest Nevada:
Strong winds across this region kicked up areas of blowing dust from
over interior portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties and
Inyo county near the Nevada border. The dust was moving to the east and
northeast and extended into southwest Nevada (Nye and Esmeralda counties).

Ruminski/Oegerle

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.