DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 14, 2017
SMOKE: Area from the North Central Us to off the Mid-Atlantic coast... Breaks in the clouds during the afternoon and early evening revealed an extensive swath of thin density smoke stretching from the Dakotas southeastward across the Upper Midwest to as far east as Indiana. A second patch of remnant thin density smoke extended from Maryland's Eastern Shore and Delaware to well off the Mid-Atlantic coast over the Atlantic. It is very possible that these 2 areas of smoke are actually connected but more widespread cloudiness was present from Ohio to Maryland and Virginia which inhibited smoke detection in this region from satellite imagery. The source for all of this smoke is believed to be mainly from the large amount of seasonal burning occurring over the past several days primarily in the region centered on eastern Kansas in and near the Flint Hills. Kansas... More new seasonal fire activity in and around the Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas was detected during the day though enough cloudiness spread across the area during the afternoon limiting smoke detection in satellite imagery in this location. Bay of Campeche/Western Gulf of Mexico... A patch of thin density smoke was visible over the Bay of Campeche and the southwestern Gulf of Mexico which was linked to ongoing seasonal fire activity over portions of Mexico, Central America, and Cuba. DUST: Southwestern and Western US... Swaths of blowing dust were noted during the afternoon and early evening emanating from sources in southeastern California, southern and eastern Nevada, northwestern Arizona, and especially western to central Utah where the dust was at least moderately dense to perhaps locally thick. Much of the dust was spreading generally to the northeast and appeared extend across Wyoming to possibly as far as southeastern Montana. 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