DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z April 16, 2022
SMOKE: South Central and Central U.S… A west to east elongated swath of remnant thin density smoke was seen this morning extending from north central New Mexico to the east and northeast across the Central Plains to the Middle Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley regions. The smoke is likely mainly due to daily seasonal/agricultural fire activity over the central U.S. with some contribution farther to the west from the Hermits Peak wildfire burning in north central New Mexico. Significant cloud cover over the region stretching from portions of Texas and Oklahoma eastward to the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic region is preventing any information through satellite imagery on the possible presence of smoke in these areas. SMOKE/AEROSOL: U.S. Gulf Coast Region/Gulf of Mexico/Southern and Eastern Mexico/Central America/Bay of Campeche/Pacific Ocean South of Mexico and Central America/Caribbean… A large mass of primarily light to moderate density smoke from seasonal fire activity mixed with aerosols from oil and gas flaring and other industrial sources in Mexico was observed covering portions of southern and eastern Mexico and Central America and extending to the north over the Bay of Campeche, the Gulf of Mexico, and inland over the U.S. Gulf Coast from southern Texas across to northern Florida. Cloud cover farther inland over the south central and southeastern U.S. limited additional information on the northward extent of the smoke/aerosol through satellite imagery. The smoke/aerosol also extended well south of the southern coast of Mexico and Central America over the Pacific. The moderately dense and embedded smaller patches of relatively thick smoke/aerosol were mainly over southern and eastern Mexico, the far western Gulf of Mexico, the western Bay of Campeche, and offshore over the Pacific south of Mexico and Central America. Farther to the east, an area of generally thin density smoke primarily from seasonal fire activity in northern South America was visible across a portion of the Caribbean south of Hispaniola and Jamaica. 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 map: https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg Smoke data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Smoke_Polygons Fire data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Fire_Points ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov