DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z December 17, 2016
SMOKE: Southern Florida... A number of thin density smoke plumes were visible over the southern half of Florida during the day with some of the plumes merging to form slightly larger patches of smoke. Western Oklahoma/Northwestern Texas... Very long narrow smoke plumes of thin to locally moderate density were seen during the afternoon and just prior to sunset emanating from several rapidly spreading grassland fires over far western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas. DUST: Southwestern US... A broad area strong gusty winds affecting portions of the Southwestern US from southern California eastward to the Central and Southern Plains were responsible for quite a bit of blowing dust. A swath of moderately dense to locally thick blowing dust from a dry lake bed in Esmeralda County of west central Nevada was seen fanning out to the east and southeast. Several source regions contributed to sizable area of thin density blowing dust affecting portions of southeastern California, northwestern Baja, as well as southwestern and south central Arizona. Significant streaks of moderately dense to thick dust were visible spreading to the east and northeast from sources in northern Mexico just south of the New Mexico border This dust affected western Texas including the El Paso region and south central to southeastern New Mexico. More thin density blowing dust moved eastward from White Sands in south central New Mexico reaching east central New Mexico and west central Texas just prior to sunset. Farther north, many streaks of thin density blowing dust were seen originating from sources in west central and northwestern Texas with this dust spreading east and reaching southwestern Oklahoma and north central Texas by sunset. Finally, an area of thin density blowing dust originated from a source in south central Colorado and spread east over southeastern Colorado toward western Kansas. 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