DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1815Z March 24, 2016

SMOKE:
Central US:
Two areas of smoke were seen over the Central US this morning with much
of the smoke coming from the expansive Anderson Creek Grass Fire along
the Oklahoma/Kansas border and the Crutch Fire in the northern Texas
Panhandle. Thin to moderately dense smoke could be seen spreading
southeast across Oklahoma/northeast Texas. A separate area of thin
remnant smoke could be seen between cloud masses getting wrapped into
a strong upper low across north Arkansas, southeast and east Missouri,
and west central Illinois.

Ohio Valley:
A patch of thin remnant smoke was moving northeastward amongst cloud
cover this morning across northern Kentucky, western West Virginia,
and southern Ohio. This smoke likely came from fires in the Southeast
US yesterday and has drifted north over the past 12-18 hrs.

Western Gulf/Bay of Campeche:
A large area of thin remnant smoke was drifting slowly east across the
western Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche. This smoke is likely
from fires in Mexico yesterday.

DUST:
Southern Plains:
Mixed with smoke from fires in Oklahoma/Kansas/Texas yesterday, an area
of elevated dust could be seen in morning imagery stretching southwest
from central Arkansas across southeast Oklahoma/northwest Louisiana
and much of eastern/southeastern/southern Texas before stretching into
northeast Mexico. This dust came from somewhere upstream...possibly
northern Mexico or west Texas.

Midwest:
A small area of elevated dust was seen stretching from northwest Iowa
across central/northeast Minnesota into far southwest Ontario and was
moving east over northwest Wisconsin/western Lake Superior.

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.