DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z April 10, 2015
SMOKE Gulf of Mexico: Light density smoke plumes were seen moving to the northwest from oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche in GOES-13 satellite imagery this afternoon/evening. The light density smoke plumes mixed with a broad area of thin remnant smoke in the western Gulf of Mexico spanning from the Bay of Campeche to the Texas Coastline. The remnant smoke is likely a combination of smoke from yesterday's agricultural burning in the Yucatan Peninsula and smoke emitted from oil rigs yesterday. DUST US West Coast/Southwestern Canada/South Central Canada/Northern Plains/Central Plains: As mentioned earlier today (see below), a diffuse region of elevated dust that likely originated from Asia can be seen along the US West coast, Northern Plains and Central Plains as well as British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. -Cronin Earlier Today... SMOKE Southeast US: An area of thin aerosol thought to be smoke from fires in the Southeastern US yesterday was seen over north Georgia, east Tennessee, and the western Carolinas. The remnant smoke was drifting east. Gulf of Mexico: Several patches of thin remnant smoke are present over the central/southern Gulf this morning and over the Bay of Campeche. This smoke is likely from fires in Cuba/the Yucatan and from oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche. A very broad swath of remnant smoke from Central American agricultural burning is stretched southwest/west from Mexico across the tropical east Pacific as well. DUST Central/South Central US: A strong cold front moving through the central/southern Plains this morning has caused an area of blowing/elevated dust seen over northwest Texas/Oklahoma/southeast Kansas/northwest Arkansas/and southwest to central Missouri. Clouds begin to obscure the aerosol from east Oklahoma/southeast Kansas northeastward and there is some possibility that agricultural burning yesterday in Kansas produced some smoke that has mixed in with the dust. The dust appears to have originated from east Colorado/west Kansas overnight into this morning. North Central US/South Central Canada: A large area of elevated dust is seen in morning imagery pressing southeastward across portions of Manitoba/Saskatchewan and Alberta into Montana/North Dakota/northwest Minnesota. This dust likely originated in Asia and extends northwestward along the higher terrain of the Alberta/British Columbia border. West Coast/East Pacific: A compact storm system and frontal boundary moving towards California has helped to accumulate a large amount elevated dust particles all along the West Coast of the US from southwest California northward to Vancouver Island. This dust likely originated in Asia. Sheffler 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