DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z January 2, 2014
Texas/New Mexico: A large area of blowing dust could be seen in the evening satellite imagery moving southward over the Texas Panhandle and eastern New Mexico. Plumes of blowing sand could also be seen coming from several point sources between Clovis, NM and Lubbock, TX. Strong surface winds behind a cold front that was quickly dropping southward across the region were the cause of the blowing dust/sand event. Northwest Mexico: Agricultural burning in the northwestern part of the Mexican state of Sonora was producing mostly thin smoke. Another area of aerosol could be seen over the northern end of the Gulf of California but it could not be determined with certainty if this aerosol was smoke from the Mexican fires or if it may have been dust from the deserts in southern California, Arizona, and northwest Mexico. 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