DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z February 20, 2023
SMOKE/AEROSOL/DUST: South Central and Southeastern U.S./Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic off the Southeast U.S. Coast/Cuba/Hispaniola/Caribbean Sea/Southern and Eastern Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific South of Mexico and Northwestern Central America… Morning satellite imagery showed a very large area of a thin density mixture of smoke and aerosol over the southern part of the south central and southeastern U.S. stretching from southern Texas across the Gulf Coast region to Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, and offshore over the nearby Atlantic. The smoke/aerosol mixture also covered portions of southern and eastern Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Caribbean Sea. Embedded smaller areas of what are believed to be mainly moderate density smoke were noted along and off the western part of Cuba. A moderately dense to thick smoke plume was also seen this morning moving to the northwest and north from a larger fire located on Andros Island in the Bahamas. The source of the larger mixture of thinner density smoke/aerosol was daily seasonal fire activity scattered across Cuba, Hispaniola, Central America, Mexico, and the south central and southeastern U.S. and from industrial activity primarily in Hispaniola, Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. The mixture of smoke/aerosol was also noted well off the coast of southern Mexico and northwestern Central America over the Pacific. Blowing dust was adding to the mixture in this region and was seen emanating from a number of sources in far southeastern Mexico, as well as the southern portions of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua and spreading to the south over the Pacific. An embedded patch of moderately dense smoke/aerosol/blowing dust was visible extending to the south from far southeastern Mexico over the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the Pacific south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec. UNKNOWN AEROSOL… Illinois/Indiana/Ohio… A swath of thin density aerosol of unknown origin and composition could be seen this morning stretching from north central Illinois over north central Indiana and Ohio. It is possible that this aerosol may be long range dust transport from Asia but that cannot be verified. 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