DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z April 29, 2016
SMOKE: Bay of Campeche/Gulf of Mexico/Texas Coast/Louisiana/Mississippi: An expansive area of thin to moderately dense residual smoke from continued seasonal burning in portions of Mexico and Central America is visible from the Bay of Campeche northward across the western and central Gulf of Mexico into central/west Texas and the Lower Mississippi River Valley. This area of remnant smoke can be seen as far west as the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains and as far east as southern Mississippi although cloud cover obscures the full extent of this smoke across the Gulf Coast. Southeastern Gulf of Mexico: A patch of thin remnant smoke could be seen moving northwest from western Cuba, likely from agricultural burning there over the past day or two. DUST: New Mexico/Texas: Several plumes of blowing dust/sand were seen emanating from northern Chihuahua into south-central New Mexico and far west Texas. These plumes amalgamated into an area of light to moderate density blowing dust that is being transported as far as central New Mexico. -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