DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 26, 2020
SMOKE: Southeastern U.S… Scattered seasonal fire activity along the Gulf Coast region was responsible for a number of primarily thin density smoke plumes which moved to the east during the afternoon. The smoke was most prevalent across southern Mississippi, southern Alabama, southern Georgia, and the Florida panhandle. Central and South Central U.S… Scattered seasonal fires were detected across portions of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas resulting in dozens of individual smoke plumes of mainly thin density. The most widespread smoke was noted across northwestern and northern Oklahoma as well as south central Kansas, and southern Texas. Mexico/Central America/Cuba… A significant amount of seasonal fires were detected over southern and southeastern Mexico, Central America, and Cuba. Locally moderate density smoke over Cuba fanned out and thinned out in density as it spread off both the northern and southern coasts of the island. A tremendous number of visible smoke plumes were noted over southern Mexico and Central America with some of them merging to form larger areas of smoke. The most concentrated and thicker density smoke was spreading west from larger fires in east central Mexico. A concentrated region of fire activity was also present over portions of the Yucatan Peninsula which resulted in smoke of varying density which moved to the west and northwest with some of the smoke entering the Bay of Campeche and the southern Gulf of Mexico. 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/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg GIS: ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/ KML: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire) http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke) ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov