DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z April 29, 2018
SMOKE: Great Plains... Widespread burning was observed across a large area including the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, South and North Dakota. Individual smoke plumes tracked the low level atmospheric circulation associated with a high pressure system centered around southeast Minnesota with the bulk of the smoke moving to the northwest. Mexico/Central America... An extensive region of stagnant smoke originating from numerous seasonal fires was observed stretching from Guadalajara/Mexico to Belize and Honduras. The smoke was particularly concentrated west of Mexico City along Sierra Madre del Sul. UNKNOWN AEROSOL/SMOKE: High level aerosol was observed flowing across a large portion of the central U.S. along with the jet stream. Global satellite imagery shows the aerosol load to have originated from eastern Asia. WS 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