DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0245Z May 21 2013
Smoke: Central America to Great Lakes Region: A large number of seasonal fires burning in Mexico and Central America were responsible for an extensive area of light density smoke which moved northward over the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico into Texas and Louisiana. From that point, the smoke spread farther to the north and east reaching the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes region. Moderately dense to thick density smoke was confined to areas a bit closer to the fires though some of the thicker density smoke did reach the Bay of Campeche and southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Blowing Dust: New Mexico/Texas/Northwestern Mexico: Numerous swaths of blowing dust were seen moving to the east from point sources in south central and southwestern Mexico, northwestern Texas, and northwestern Mexico (just south of the New Mexico border). Some of the dust which originated from White Sands in south central New Mexico and the sources in northwestern Mexico south of the New Mexico border were locally moderately dense. JS 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