DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z March 19, 2023
SMOKE/AEROSOLS: Florida/Atlantic Ocean off the Southeastern U.S. Coast/Gulf of Mexico/Far Western Caribbean Sea/Southern and Southeastern Mexico/Northern Central America/Pacific Ocean off the Southern Coast of Mexico and Northern Central America… Significant cloud cover over much of the Gulf of Mexico and Bay of Campeche, Cuba, the Bahamas, and a portion of the Florida peninsula, and eastern Mexico greatly limited smoke/aerosol detection in these areas from satellite imagery. A couple of swaths of thin density aerosol were visible this morning around the cloud edges and breaks in the clouds. One of these swaths extended from the northeastern Gulf of Mexico across the northern part of the Florida peninsula, then offshore paralleling the coast of the Carolinas. A second band of thin density smoke/aerosol was noted stretching from the northern Bahamas to the northeast over the open Atlantic. Farther to the southwest, larger areas of thin to moderate density smoke/aerosol were seen over southern and southeastern Mexico, the far western Caribbean Sea, northern Central America, and offshore of southern Mexico and northern Central America over the Pacific Ocean. The embedded moderate areas of smoke/aerosol were visible mainly along and just off the southern coast of Mexico and northern Central America over the nearby Pacific Ocean. All areas of smoke/aerosol mix were attributed to ongoing seasonal fire activity and industrial activity in portions of Mexico and Central America. The batches of smoke/aerosol farther to the northeast impacting the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and the Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern U.S. coast may be from a combination of the fire and industrial activity in Mexico and Central America and recent seasonal fire activity in the southeastern U.S. and Cuba. DUST: Central and Southeastern U.S… Areas of very thin density aerosol were seen this morning spreading to the southeast over the region stretching from the Central Plains to the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valley regions. While it is not definite, it is believed that this aerosol was likely composed of dust which was transported aloft all the way from the desert regions of Asia. 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