DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0113Z April 8, 2023
SMOKE: Central and Northern Plains… Heavy seasonal burning throughout the are was responsible for a large area of mostly light to moderate density smoke which was located around Colorado and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma extending to the the north into southeastern South Dakota and continues east to central Michigan. Today’s round of seasonal fire activity over Kansas cause an area dense smoke over most of eastern Kansas and into southeastern Nebraska. The fires also caused an area of moderate density smoke in northern Oklahoma extending to the northeast into southwestern Michigan. Southeastern and Eastern U.S./Atlantic Ocean… Significant cloud cover over the southeastern and eastern U.S. prevented smoke in detection through satellite imagery though some larger fires were picked up latter today. Smoke from heavy seasonal burning in the central U.S. and possible smoke from the seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America was present in some of this region. The smoke was visible extending from southeastern coastal region to the south over the Atlantic Ocean. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Southwestern Texas/Gulf of Mexico/Hispaniola/Cuba/Caribbean Sea/Northwestern Central America/Eastern Half of Mexico/Pacific Ocean South of the Southern Coast of Mexico and Central America… Significant and widespread seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America resulted in a very large mass of primarily thin to moderate density smoke which blanketed much of southern Mexico south of Texas, portions of Central America, the Pacific off the coast of southern Mexico and northwestern Central America, the southern and western Gulf of Mexico, and far southwestern Texas. Some aerosols from industrial activities originating in Mexico and Central America may also be mixed in with the smoke. Cloudiness in various places including Texas and inland over the southeastern U.S. and Mid-Atlantic region prevented the location of any smoke through satellite imagery which might still be present in those areas. Moderate to even smaller thick density areas of smoke were seen over some of southern Mexico, northwestern Central America (thick), most of the Gulf of Mexico, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. Blowing Dust: Colorado/Kansas/Nebraska... Light to moderate blowing dust could be seen originating from eastern Colorado blowing to the northeast into Kansas and Nebraska where the dust was mixing with the other conglomerated moderate smoke in the central and northern U.S. 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 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