DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0159Z February 18, 2022
SMOKE: Eastern Half of U.S… Significant cloud cover over the eastern half of the U.S. prevented much in the way of smoke detection in satellite imagery. Widespread and numerous seasonal fires were detected the past few days in the south central and southeastern U.S. California... Probable seasonal burning activity in northern and central California was emitting mostly light to moderate density smoke plumbs that were spreading out around their source and then moving east and north in central California and in northern California a light to heavy density smoke plumb was observed moving south. Earlier today; A relatively large fire located in the valley south of Bishop in east central California was producing a thin to moderately dense smoke plume which was moving to the south-southeast. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Central and Western Gulf Coast Region/Bay of Campeche/Gulf of Mexico/Southern and Eastern Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific Ocean South of Mexico and Central America... The combination of thin density smoke from seasonal fires in Mexico and Central America and other atmospheric pollutants including aerosols from oil and gas flaring and other industries in the region was visible today over southern and eastern Mexico, northwestern Central America, a sizable portion of the Pacific off the southern coast of Mexico and Central America, the Bay of Campeche, the western and central Gulf of Mexico, continuing east over most of the Florida peninsula, south over Cuba, and the Gulf coast region from southern and southeastern Texas across to southern Louisiana. Within this very large area of thinner density smoke/aerosol was an area of moderate density smoke over eastern Mexico and extended out over the western Gulf of Mexico and the western part of the Bay of Campeche. BLOWING DUST: Southeastern New Mexico/Northern Mexico/Texas... An area of light density blowing dust was observed moving south over western Texas and northern Mexico this evening. The blowing dust originated this morning moving to the south over southeastern New Mexico and western Texas. While most of the area appeared to be rather thin density, the leading edge was moderately dense to even locally thick. Eglin 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