DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z April 28, 2018
SMOKE: Oklahoma... Leftover patches of thinner density smoke from a large amount of seasonal fire activity yesterday over the Central and South Central US could be seen over Oklahoma spreading to the southeast. Central US... Many new seasonal fires were beginning to be detected in satellite imagery over the Central US from The Dakotas and Minnesota southward to eastern Texas. A number of smoke plumes were also beginning to develop with some of these fires as well. Mexico/Central America... An area of thin density smoke from seasonal fires over Mexico and Central America was visible over southern Mexico and a portion of Central America and south of this region over the Pacific. UNKNOWN AEROSOL/SMOKE: Southwest to South Central Canada/North Central and Central US/Middle to Lower Mississippi Valley/Southeastern US/Middle Atlantic Region... The lower sun angle in the early morning highlighted a huge region of unknown thin density aerosol covering southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan in Canada as well as the Dakotas in the north central US. From there the aerosol was visible extending to the southeast across portions of the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley, the Southeast, and the Middle-Atlantic regions. It is very likely that at least some of this aerosol was composed of leftover smoke from a large amount of seasonal fires analyzed yesterday scattered across Southwestern and South Central Canada and the Northwestern, North Central, and Central portions of the US. It is not known if any of this aerosol was composed of dust either from sources within the US or from Asia. 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