DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1900Z April 12, 2018
SMOKE: Central Plains/Ozarks... From far eastern New Mexico into northern Arkansas, many fires were observed emitting smoke of varying density this afternoon. Included in this are 5 major fires, 1 in east-central New Mexico and 4 in northwestern Oklahoma, that have spread wildly this afternoon and early evening with very thick smoke plumes and, with the most intense fire in western Dewey County, possible pyrocumulus development. The fires west of 99W were moving rapidly to the east-northeast, while those east of 99W to northern Arkansas were moving due nearly due north. Southeastern CONUS... From eastern Texas into Florida and from Indiana to Virginia, likely over 100 smoke plumes were visible this afternoon moving in a counter-clockwise manner (from east to west in Florida, while from southwest to northeast in Indiana and Virginia) around a high pressure center off the Georgia or Carolina coast today. Eastern Arizona/Western New Mexico... A few fires throughout east-central Arizona and western New Mexico were producing varying amounts of smoke this afternoon. The most intense fire, in northwestern New Mexico, was observed producing thick smoke that made its way into southeastern Colorado. All of the smoke produced by these fires was moving off rapidly toward the east-northeast. Note that blowing dust was also observed in close proximity to these fires, which could possibly contribute to a thicker visible plume or a false detection of smoke outside areas of known dust origin. DUST: Southwestern CONUS... Blowing dust was observed from southern California and southern Nevada into northern Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. Some source regions include the Mojave and Colorado deserts in southern California, a few dry lake beds in southern Nevada, the Sonoran Desert and Willcox Playa in Arizona, White Sands in south-central New Mexico, and northern portions of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. By sundown, the dust had spread into northeastern Colorado and west-central Oklahoma, just south of the major fire activity there. Hosley 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