DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z May 10, 2014
SMOKE Western Gulf of Mexico: A broad area of light to moderately dense smoke from the seasonal agricultural fires in Mexico and Central America was seen covering much of the Western Gulf (west of about 94W). The smoke likely extended inland along the Texas coast but extensive cloud cover prohibited a determination of how far inland the smoke extends. Northern Plains/southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba: Numerous agricultural fires across this area are producing mostly short duration light smoke plumes. A couple of notable fires in southwest North Dakota and southeast South Dakota were generating more significant moderately dense smoke plumes. BLOWING DUST West Texas: A localized area of light blowing dust was seen over west Texas east of Seminole and north of Midland. This dust was moving to the east. Western Canada to the Northern Plains: An area of elevated light aerosol was seen in late day imagery from southern British Columbia eastward across southern Alberta and Saskatchewan into southern Manitoba, the Dakotas and Minnesota. Aerosol forecast models suggest that this is dust from Asia which has tracked across the Pacific. Another surge of light dust was also seen dropping south into northern British Columbia. Alaska: An area of light aerosol, likely dust from Asia, was dropping south across the eastern Aleutians and nearly reaching Kodiak Island by late in the day. 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