DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z April 19, 2018
SMOKE: Southeastern US/Middle Atlantic Region... What are believed to be mostly seasonal fires were analyzed scattered across a good portion of the Southeastern US. Quite a few smoke plumes of mainly thin density were observed with the smoke generally moving off to the northeast. Some of the plumes merged to form somewhat larger patches of smoke toward the late afternoon and early evening. Central and South Central US... A mixture of continuing wildfires and seasonal burning was occurring over the Central US with areas of primarily thin density smoke spreading to the southeast across portions of southern Kansas, Oklahoma, southern Arkansas, and northern and central Texas. Southwestern US... A couple of fires in eastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico were emitting visible smoke which moved off to the northeast. More fire activity in northern Mexico were also producing sizable smoke plumes which spread quickly to the east and northeast with some of the smoke extending into southern New Mexico and far western Texas by sunset. DUST: Area from Texas to the Middle Atlantic Region... Aerosol which is likely mainly leftover thin density blowing dust from yesterday's significant event over the Southwest and South Central US moved rapidly to the east and was visible stretching from central and southern Texas northeastward over the Lower Mississippi Valley region across the Ohio Valley to the Middle Atlantic Region. It is certainly possibly if not likely that some of this aerosol was also composed of remnant smoke from the Central US fire activity especially in the region extending from Texas to the Middle Mississippi Valley region. JS Earlier This Morning... SMOKE: Central Plains/Mid-Mississippi Valley.... Some of the ongoing fire activity in western Oklahoma and the North Texas Panhandle, as well as some activity in eastern Oklahoma and west-central Arkansas, was seen producing thin to moderate density smoke this morning. In addition to these smoke plumes, a few areas of remnant smoke, likely originating from the fire activity in western Oklahoma, were observed over much of central Texas and from northeastern Arkansas into west-central Indiana and east-central Illinois. Much of the smoke, both remnant and attached plumes, were moving off to the south across Oklahoma and Texas, while smoke over eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas was moving off to the southeast and the remnant smoke region was moving eastward toward the Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys. -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