DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 27, 2016
SMOKE: Kentucky/West Virginia: A small patch of thin remnant smoke was seen moving northeast over Kentucky and western West Virginia. The source region for this residual smoke is likely from the Central and Southern Plains created during the past several days from agricultural/prescribed burns as well as brush fires. Central Plains: Multiple agricultural and prescribed burns were observed over Oklahoma, Arkansas, southern Missouri and southern Illinois. There were many small light density smoke plumes associated with these fires that were primarily traveling towards the north. Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche: Several areas of thin remnant smoke cover much of the Gulf of Mexico this evening stretching southward to Mexico's Bay of Campeche. Mostly dense cloud cover over the western Gulf likely obscures some smoke as well. Much of this smoke is from fires in Mexico over the past few days though smoke was also observed coming from the area of Cuba where a handful of fires were burning yesterday. DUST: New Mexico: A small area of light density blowing sand/dust was seen this evening in satellite imagery originating from the White Sands National Monument in south central New Mexico. The blowing sand/dust was traveling east-northeast towards the Texas and New Mexico border. Texas: An area of blowing dust/sand originating from north-central Chihuahua Mexico was seen moving east over the western Texas border. -Cronin 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