DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z September 12. 2013
Lower and Mid Mississippi Valley/Ohio Valley/northern Mid Atlantic/southern New England: A large area of mainly light density smoke was seen circulating clockwise around the western and northern portions of a broad area of high pressure centered over the Tennessee Valley. The smoke covered much of Louisiana and Arkansas and adjoining areas of Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi and then turned to the northeast across much of Missouri, southern Indiana, Illinois and Ohio and Kentucky. The smoke was then difficult to locate across Pennsylvania, where clouds obscured it, but it likely continued eastward where it was visible again over southern New England and Long Island, extending into the Atlantic. The smoke is mainly originating form the numerous agricultural fires over the lower Mississippi Valley which have been occurring for the past several days. There is likely also haze pollution mixed in with the smoke. California/Oregon: Clouds associated with a large cyclonic circulation which covers much of the Western US are making smoke detection over California difficult. Smoke from the Rim and other fires, which are still ongoing, continues to affect much of the southern two thirds of California and adjoining coastal waters. Smoke from fires in southwest Oregon is also covering the southwest corner of the state. It also appears that the smoke has drifted off the coast and is tracking north and is reaching as far north as the Washington coast off the Olympic peninsula. Western Great Lakes: A very thin area of smoke likely from Canadian fires in northern Saskatchewan was seen across central Wisconsin and across northern Lake Michigan into northern Michigan. Ruminski 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