DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1615Z April 4 2014
Western Gulf of Mexico/Western Caribbean: Smoke from seasonal agricultural burning in southern Mexico and Central America covers much of the western Gulf of Mexico this morning, mostly west of 90W. It extends from the Bay of Campeche northward towards the Texas Gulf Coast and southern Louisiana coast. Clouds were obscuring some of the smoke directly along the Texas coast and over Louisiana. Further south, thin to moderately dense smoke could be seen over the western Caribbean waters just southeast of the Yucatan Peninsula as well, which was drifting northwestward. South Central Gulf of Mexico: A small area of thin smoke could be seen coming from western Cuba this morning drifting west-northwestward. This is likely remnant smoke from agricultural burning that occurred in Cuba yesterday. Southeast and Southern Mid-Atlantic Coasts/Atlantic Ocean: An area of thin remnant smoke was still visible this today stretching fromthe northeastern coast of Florida northeast along the Eastern Seaboard to just off the coast of North Carolina/southeast Virginia where it disappeared beneath clouds along a frontal boundary. This smoke is from the numerous agricultural fires that have occurred over the past several days in the southeastern U.S. Oklahoma/Arkansas/Texas/Louisiana: Elevated dust from yesterdays' blowing dust event across northwest Texas and western Oklahoma could be easily seen this morning stretching across southern and eastern Texas, far southeast Oklahoma, northwest Louisiana, and southwest to northeast Arkansas. There was also some hint of the dust across southeast Missouri although clouds made aerosol identification harder there. 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.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