DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z April 11, 2017
SMOKE: Florida/Eastern Gulf of Mexico... Mainly thin density smoke from the wildfire burning in northeastern Collier County of southern Florida as well as a few others in the Florida peninsula spread to the west during the day and offshore over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Some of this smoke appeared to move more to the northwest and made it back inland over a portion of the Florida panhandle. Locally thicker smoke was located closer to the wildfire in Collier County. Georgia/Northern Florida... A number of fires burning over southern Georgia and northern Florida were responsible for a large patch of thin to locally moderately dense smoke which spread to the west during the day covering a sizable portion of the region. Central US... Concentrated seasonal fire activity primarily over the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma produced a large area of mainly thin density smoke which fanned out to the east and southeast covering much of eastern Kansas, western Missouri, and eastern Oklahoma. Central and Western Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche... A large mass of thin to moderately dense smoke from seasonal burning occurring in portions of Mexico and Central America was present over the central and western Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche. Some of the smoke likely made its way overland across southern and southeastern Texas, and southern Louisiana though cloudiness in this area limited information from satellite imagery. DUST: North Central and Central US/Southern Canada... Thin density aerosol was visible stretching from Saskatchewan Province in south central Canada over eastern Montana, the Dakotas, eastern Wyoming, western Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and western Kansas. Model forecasts indicate that some of this aerosol likely is composed of dust and originated in Asia. Southwestern US... Additional aerosol was seen near sunset over the Southwestern US and offshore over the eastern Pacific though it is not certain what is the composition of this aerosol. 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