DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 3, 2016
SMOKE: Central and South Central US: A tremendous concentration of seasonal fires were detected especially across eastern and southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma which resulted in a patch of moderately dense to locally thick smoke which moved to the southeast during the day with the thinner density leading edge reaching into southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. JS Earlier This Morning... Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Florida Straits/Southeast US Coast: A very large area of mainly thin density smoke was visible spreading to the north and northeast from the Bay of Campeche and the central Gulf of Mexico along a frontal boundary. Clouds likely obscure some of the smoke, especially across Florida though additional patches of thin remnant smoke could be seen further northeast off the coast of the Southeast US. The source of this smoke is the ongoing seasonal burning occurring over portions of Mexico and Central America. Additional thin density smoke was present just to the north of Cuba and off the southeast coast of Florida with most of this smoke coming from fires in Cuba yesterday. Caribbean: An extremely large mass of thin to moderately dense smoke can be seen in GOES imagery making its way westward and northwestward before starting to turn to the north over the far western Caribbean. This smoke is coming from significant fires in South America with the smoke being drawn north towards the US ahead of the very deep upper level trough. 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