DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z March 24, 2016
SMOKE: Central US: An extremely large and rapidly moving grass fire fanned by high winds was analyzed during the day centered along the Kansas-Oklahoma border. This fire produced an extensive swath of moderately dense to thick smoke which moved quickly to the northeast and then curved to the north covering the region from south central Kansas to northeastern Kansas and southeastern Nebraska. Other wildfires were detected over western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas which also emitted moderately dense to locally thick smoke which spread initially to the northeast and east, but also to the southeast late in the day after the winds switched direction. Middle Atlantic Region: A southwest to northeast elongated area of thin density smoke, which was likely leftover from the large number of fires over the Southeastern US yesterday, was visible late in the afternoon and early evening moving to the east across the region stretching from Virginia to New York City and Long Island NY. Southeastern US: A sizable number of fires were detected scattered across the area from northern Florida across a good portion of Georgia and South Carolina resulting in many smoke plumes of primarily thin density which spread quickly to the north and northeast covering a large distance. Some of the plumes merged together into larger patches of smoke. Other fires producing visible smoke were scattered over the Appalachians from northern Georgia to southeastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and southern West Virginia. BLOWING DUST: Northern Mexico/Southern New Mexico/Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas: A major blowing dust episode continued during the day with areas of dense blowing dust becoming visible again after 18Z moving to the southeast from source regions in northern Mexico (just south of the New Mexico border), far western Texas, and southern New Mexico (including White Sands). Thinner density dust was seen also after 18Z moving to the east and northeast across western to north central Texas and over southwestern and central Oklahoma before merging with the large mass of smoke over Oklahoma and Kansas. This dust is likely a combination of dust leftover from yesterday and from new source regions today (most likely western Texas between Midland and Lubbock). JS 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