DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0045Z April 21, 2014
Smoke: Upper Mississippi River Valley: Along the edges of high cloud cover in S MN and N WI thin smoke from prior day's output from fires (mostly in E KS) across KS, IA, and SE NEB can be detected moving slowly N within a broader SWly flow that is moving the smoke NE. Likely smoke covers much of IA as well though is obscured by cloud cover. Dust/other: US West: As described below a very large area of milky/hazy conditions cover much of the northern 2/3rds of CA, all of NV and UT, S ID, portions of WY into SD moving NE. Much can be traced across the Pacific Ocean back to sources across E Asia (China/Mongolia/S Russian Siberia) Gallina Earlier today: SMOKE Central Plains: An area of light density smoke was detected from eastern Nebraska extending to the east northeast covering much of Iowa, southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The area is somewhat nebulous due to clouds in the area which make determination of the extent of the smoke difficult. The smoke was generated by the continued agricultural burning in the region. DUST/OTHER West Coast A broad area of light density aerosol was seen over much of the eastern Pacific off the west coast of the US, although the aerosol seemed to be most concentrated off the Washington/Oregon coast and also off the coast south of San Francisco. Aerosol models from NASA and the Naval Research lab suggest that the aerosol is likely a mix of dust and sulfates transported across the Pacific from east Asia. South Central Canada: A similar pulse of light aerosol as detected off the West Coast was also seen over south central and southeast Saskatchewan. Whether this extended into northeast Montana and northwest North Dakota was not discernible due to cloud cover. Aerosol models suggest that this is also likely a mix of dust and sulfate. 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.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