DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z April 24, 2014
BLOWING DUST Texas/New Mexico/Oklahoma: An unusually large and strong area of blowing dust was noted over the region for the early morning hours. Strong winds with gusts in excess of 40mph overnight and early this morning have generated a large area of moderately dense to dense dust which stretched in an arc from southwest Oklahoma through the southern portion of the Texas Panhandle and into east central New Mexico near sunrise. The dust was quickly moving to the south and had reached far southeast New Mexico to San Angelo to the Fort Worth area by 1630Z. SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico: An area of light to moderate smoke, likely mixed with sulfates from oil rigs, was seen over the Bay of Campeche in the southwest Gulf of Mexico. This area was generally lifting to the north. OTHER: Western Atlantic: An area of light aerosol was noted extending east from the Georgia, northern Florida and southern South Carolina coasts into the Atlantic. The composition is not certain but is likely a mix of smoke from recent agricultural fires, long range dust transport from Asia and sulfates. 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