DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z April 8, 2015
SMOKE Gulf of Mexico: Areas of light smoke from the agricultural burning in the Yucatan and adjoining areas of Mexico and Central America were seen over the southwest Gulf of Mexico. The smoke was mixing with emissions from the oil rigs in the same area of the southwestern Gulf. The whole mass was moving to the northwest and contributing to a general haziness over much of the western Gulf up to the Texas coast. Central Plains: Numerous fires from the seasonal burning in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas and northeast Oklahoma generated many, mostly small, smoke plumes that as the evening wore on merged into a larger area of light smoke that covered much of eastern Kansas. The smoke area was shifting to the east and reached the Missouri border by sunset. DUST West Texas: A small area of light blowing dust was kicked up by gusty winds over west Texas between Lubbock and Midland and moving to the northeast. Southwest: An area of light to moderately dense blowing dust was originating from the Sevier and Escalante deserts of western Utah and moving to the north to the Great Salt Lake. A separate area of light dust was observed over the Four Corners region and moving to the northeast. A broader area of elevated very light dust from Asia was seen from southeast California, across far southern Nevada and northwest Arizona into southeast Utah. Another surge of elevated dust from Asia was off nearly the entire Pacific Coast of the US and extended further north across Vancouver Island and into mainland British Columbia. This dust is forecast to move inland across the Pacific Northwest and much of California tomorrow. 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