DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z April 15, 2014
Central US: An enormous band of dust is visible in GOES-W satellite imagery moving eastward across the country beginning at 1200Z. The thick band is visible extending from the Minnesota/Canada border south to NE Texas with the densest areas populating the Midwest region (Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri). The dust is also visible moving through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. There is a probably that the dust is a mixture of smoke as well, since the Plains have seen numerous agricultural burns this week. The dust however is Asian in origin and has been been blowing over the Pacific Ocean the last few days. Latin America: A large area of medium-density smoke is visible swirling off the coast of Belize, Honduras, and the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico moving NE. The origin of the smoke is the numerous agricultural burns taking place in Mexico and Central America. Oegerle 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