DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z December 19, 2023
SMOKE: Southeastern U.S/Northeastern Gulf of Mexico… A number of developing smoke plumes were seen this morning in satellite imagery with today’s round of seasonal fire activity scattered across the southeastern U.S. Farther to the south, a larger area of what is likely remnant thin density smoke from yesterday’s seasonal burning in the southeastern U.S. was visible moving to the south across the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. AEROSOL/DUST/SMOKE: Southern and Southeastern Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific Ocean south of Mexico and Northwestern Central America… Areas of thin to moderate density aerosol were seen this morning across some of southern and southeastern Mexico, northwestern Central America, and the Pacific Ocean south of the southern coast of Mexico and northwestern Central America. Since only minor fire activity was analyzed over Mexico and northwestern Central America, it is believed that the vast majority of it is from a combination of industrial activities in these locations and blowing dust from sources across far southeastern Mexico and southwestern Guatemala. 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