DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z May 25, 2012
Update for dust areas (NV/AZ): Smoke: Whitewater/Baldy output: Yesterday's Whitewater/Baldy wildfire in New Mexico covers a very large portion of the central US into the Great Lakes. This is particularly dense across NE TX, AR, N MS, W TN, W KY, MO, and IL. Thin to moderate smoke can be tracked ahead of strong cold front moving into WI, covering Lake Superior into Central Ontario. Further south wind flow is a bit slower and anticyclonic over TX and LA lead to very slow movement E and mixing with Mexician fire output across the south. Canada: Numerous large wildfires erupted across far E Ontario and the southern woodlands of Quebec. Please see graphic and GIS web pages... but thin smoke from yesterday's output of the largest fire in western Quebec may be traced across C Quebec into western Labrador/Quebec province line...moving toward the St. Lawrence Seaway. Central Gulf of Mexico to Tampa Bay: A very narrow (less than 20km wide) filament of high level smoke showed up at the very end of the day with high sun angle, was seen extending from Tampa Bay SW to 25N85W then more westward to 23.5N90W. This was likely thin smoke from Mexican fires emitted a few days ago. Western Gulf of Mexico: Numerous fires across Southern Mexico/N Central America continue to pump out a large area of thin smoke that drifts north across the Western Gulf west of 90W eventually affecting coastal Texas and Louisiana in the low levels (likely surface to the boundary layer inversion). Mexican Fires: Remnant moderate to dense smoke from yesterday's emission continues to drape under weak flow across S Baja California to the Big Bend of Texas (as far north as I-10) where it begins to meld with smoke from the Whitewater/Baldy fire complex. This area has been lifting north slowly. Dust/Sand: Northern California: Transported Asian dust can be seen drifting south ahead of cyclone moving south along the Pacific NW coast. The area covers northern CA into NW NV from San Francisco to Reno northward to the Oregon state line. Nevada: A Dense sand plume can be seen moving due east from the Carson Sink in north central Churchill county, NV. The plume is about 45km wide and extends to the Lander Eureka county line. Another dense sand plume can be seen from the salt flat east of the Walker River Reservation in NE Mineral county. This plume is a bit narrower (due to source region orientation to the wind). This plume was moving due east but winds have shifted at the source out the NW so the plume now extends SE about 100km into north central Nye county. The sand moving due east is along the Nye/Lander county line moving through the Toquima Range about 125km from the source. Illinois/Wisconsin: Very strong southerly winds in advance of cold front draped from deeping low over N MN has lead to thin to moderate N-S oriented rolls of blowing dust/soils seen across much of Central IL and N IL... particularly across sources in Mason and Tazewell counties... though more subtle features could be seen out of McLean, DeKalb, Ford, Grundy counties before high clouds and smoke from the Whitewater/Baldy fires moved in around 23z. Arizona: Moderately dense sand dust from source deserts across far SW Maricopa county is blowing N and NNE across much of Western Maricopa to the Yavapa county line. The sand is much more dense further west from the Sentinel Plain source regions. This is mixing with the Sonora dust/sand below. Mexico: Sonora: Coastal deserts along the Gulf of California are the sources of large moderately dense dust/sand storm moving nearly due north cover a large portion of the state and beginning to affect S AZ across Pima and W Santa Cruz counties. N Chihuahua: The deserts and salt flats of far northern Chihuahua have kicked up thin to moderate density plume that is about 50km wide covers El Paso to Hobbs NM covering a large portion of the West TX panhandle and SE NM. Gallina THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS 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.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/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