DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z April 1, 2014
Central and Southern Plains: A storm system tracking east across the northern Plains is producing strong winds to its south, which has led to a rather expansive area of blowing dust/sand. Blowing dust/sand is seen to originate from southwest Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and Oklahoma panhandle. Area of blowing dust/sand extends as far east as Iowa/southwest Wisconsin back across Missouri, southern Nebraska, Kansas, eastern Colorado, northern Oklahoma, and as far south as panhandle of Texas. In general dust/sand is moving south and east. Additionally, a large fire located in western Oklahoma has been producing light to moderately dense smoke since around 2045Z. This smoke plumes extends east reaching the Oklahoma/Arkansas border. New Mexico: Area of blowing dust/sand originating just west of Alamogordo, NM is seen extending toward the east-northeast. Western Gulf of Mexico: An area of unknown aerosols could be seen covering most of the western Gulf of Mexico, southern Texas, and eastern Mexico this evening. This area of aerosols appears to be remaining rather stationary. Portions of this area of aerosols over the southern Gulf of Mexico and southern Mexico may be mixing with smoke from western Central America fires. Southern California: Area of unknown aerosols (possibly dust from Asia) is seen drifting east across southern California. Based on satellite imagery and the presence of strong surface winds that dust/sand is being blown to the east originating from an area just west of the Salton Sea. Warren 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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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