DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z February 24, 2016
SMOKE... Western Gulf of Mexico: The large area of thin density smoke from the Bay of Campeche oil rigs and the seasonal fires over Mexico which previously extended as far as southern Texas yesterday and overnight moved back to the south over northern Mexico and over the western Gulf of Mexico as the winds changed direction behind a frontal zone. A bit farther to the east, additional thin density smoke from the oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche and from seasonal fires in Mexico along with other possible pollutants/aerosols spread northward and became entrained within the aforementioned frontal zone over the western Gulf of Mexico with smoke nearly reaching the southern coast of Louisiana. However, cloudiness over the western Gulf and Gulf Coast region did limit the northern extent of this smoke in satellite imagery. 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: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/land/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov