DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z January 13, 2022
SMOKE: Gulf Coast Region/Northern Gulf of Mexico… Areas of mainly leftover thin density smoke from yesterday’s round of seasonal fire activity in the south central and southeastern U.S. was seen this morning over portions of Louisiana, the southern part of Mississippi and Alabama, the Florida panhandle, southwestern Georgia, and portions of the northwestern and north central Gulf of Mexico. The remnant smoke was moving primarily off to the east and southeast. Hispaniola/Caribbean… Moderate to thick density smoke from wildfires in the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic was visible this morning moving to the east with a larger surrounding batch of thinner density smoke extending to the south and southwest of the fires over the Caribbean. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Western Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Eastern and Southern Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific South of Mexico and Central America… Northerly flow suppressed the usual remnant smoke and other aerosols from gas and oil flaring and other industrial pollutants across eastern Mexico, the western Gulf of Mexico, and the Bay of Campeche. This along with extensive cloud cover allowed for only a relatively small patch of the remnant smoke from seasonal fire activity in eastern Mexico to be seen over a sliver of eastern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico. Farther to the south, sizable areas of aerosols from oil and gas flaring and industrial activities combined with possible leftover thin density smoke from regional seasonal type burning was visible this morning along and off of portions of southern Mexico, northwestern Central America, and well out over the Pacific to the south of these regions. 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