DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z April 30, 2018
SMOKE: Arizona/Utah/New Mexico/Arizona... A wildfire increased significantly in size during the day over south central Coconino County of central Arizona resulting in a large dense smoke plume which spread rapidly to the northeast across the 4-corners region into southwestern Colorado. Wildfires with moderately dense to locally thick smoke spreading to the northeast were also noted over east central Arizona and over southwestern New Mexico. In south central Utah, a fire flared up with a moderately dense to thick smoke plume briefly seen in between breaks in the clouds. Central US... Numerous seasonal fires were detected across a broad portion of the Central US from Minnesota and the Great Lakes region southward to the Southern Plains. Many individual smoke plumes of mainly thin density were visible with some of these fires with a few of them combining to form larger patches of smoke. Mexico/Central America... Seasonal fires resulted in a very large mass of thin to moderately dense smoke which covered portions of Mexico, Central America, and the Bay of Campeche. DUST: Eastern North Dakota/Western Minnesota... Some type of aerosol was visible moving rapidly to the north and across the border into south central Canada from numerous source regions of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. It is possible that strong gusty southerly winds have kicked up some loose soils there. Southwestern US... Many individual sources of blowing dust of thin to moderate density were noted over the interior portion of southern California from the Baja border northward over the Salton Sea to near the border with southern Nevada. This dust was generally moving to the east. Additional thin density blowing dust was visible from sources in southern Arizona including the Wilcox Playa (southeastern Arizona) and southern New Mexico including White Sands. This dust was moving mainly to the northeast. 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