Tuesday, March 15, 2016

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z March 16, 2016

SMOKE:
Southeastern US:
Quiet a few fires were analyzed across the region stretching from eastern
and southeastern Mississippi eastward to the Carolinas, Georgia, and
Florida. Many smoke plumes of primarily thin density were visible in
satellite imagery emanating from these fires with some of the plumes
being blowing well to the east of the fire locations. This was especially
evident with the fires closer to the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia,
and Florida with the smoke spreading well offshore over the Atlantic.

Western Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche:
The area of mainly thin density smoke attributed to a combination of
seasonal fires in Mexico and Central America and oil rigs in the Bay
of Campeche continued to be visible over the Bay of Campeche and the
western Gulf of Mexico.

BLOWING DUST:
Southeastern Colorado:
A very thin streak of blowing dust was seen moving to the southeast
from a point source in west central Las Animas County of south central
Colorado. The dust event began around 18Z and continued for several
hours with dust reaching into northeastern New Mexico.

Western and Southwestern Texas:
A patch of thin density blowing dust originated from a source area north
of Midland in western Texas around 18Z and spread to the southeast into
southwestern Texas during the afternoon and early evening.

JS

Earlier This Morning...
SMOKE:
Central US:
A plume of thin remnant smoke could be seen stretching from eastern
Texas northeastward to southern Missouri and far southern Illinois. Much
of this smoke is believed to have come north from Mexico and the Bay
of Campeche though numerous agricultural burns in Kansas, Oklahoma,
Missouri, and Texas yesterday likely contributed additional smoke.

Southeast US:
An area of thin smoke is progressing steadily east off the Southeast US
coast. This smoke is probably from fires over the past two days in the
Southeast US states. Additional aerosol closer to the North Carolina/South
Carolina coast may be elevated dust that had progressed offshore.

Florida Straits:
A small patch of remnant smoke can be seen just north of western Cuba
moving westward across the Straits of Florida. This smoke is either from
fires yesterday in the Bahamas or from fires in Cuba.

BLOWING DUST:
Central Texas to East Kansas/North Missouri/East Iowa/Central Illinois:
Blowing dust can be seen this morning moving the east and southeast
across central and northern Texas where strong winds are blowing ahead of
a frontal boundary. Stretching northeastward along/behind the boundary
is elevated dust across Oklahoma, east Kansas, north Missouri as well
as focused along a warm front over east Iowa/central Illinois.

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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.