DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z April 14, 2018
SMOKE: Central US... Major wildfires were burning in western Oklahoma and northwestern Texas resulting in a large mass of moderate to thick density smoke which spread very quickly to the east and northeast covering much of northwest and north central Texas and the western two-thirds of Oklahoma. The smoke then spread northward around the southern and eastern portion of a low pressure system and enveloped central and eastern Kansas and up into southeastern Nebraska and southwestern Iowa. Smoke likely extended even farther to the north but cloud cover limited detection from satellite imagery. Southwestern Texas... A couple of large fires in the Mexican state of Chihuahua produced thick smoke which rapidly spread to the east and fanned out with the leading edge of thinner density smoke moving into southwestern Texas to the west of the Big Bend region. Western Gulf of Mexico/Southern and Southeastern Texas/Southern Louisiana... A large area of thin density smoke from the very significant amount of seasonal burning occurring over Mexico and Central America was visible moving to the north over the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico with very thin density smoke likely reaching into southern and southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana though cloud cover is limiting detection from satellite imagery. Southeastern US and Middle-Atlantic Region... Quite a few fires and smoke plumes were analyzed across the Southeastern US and the Middle-Atlantic Region with the majority of the smoke moving to the north or northeast. Most of the smoke plumes were of thin density though a few thicker ones were noted as well. DUST: Southwestern and South Central US/Northwestern and North Central Mexico... A major blowing dust event was occurring over portions of the Southwest and South Central US and northwest and north central Mexico. A large swath of moderately dense to locally thick dust from a number of sources was visible across southern New Mexico and the region from southwestern and western Texas to north central Texas where it mixed with smoke from wildfire activity. Moderately dense to thick dust could also be seen moving to the east and southeast over northern Chihuahua in north central Mexico. Thinner density blowing dust mixed with the wildfire smoke spread to the northeast and north across Oklahoma as well. Farther to the west and southwest, thinner density blowing dust was visible moving to the southeast from a few spots in southeastern, south central, and southwestern Arizona as well as far northwestern Mexico bordering the Gulf of California. 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