DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0415Z March 17, 2016
SMOKE: An area of thin remnant smoke with an embedded moderately dense patch continues to be seen moving east off the coast of the Southeast US. This smoke came from the large amount of agricultural burning that occurred in the Southeastern US yesterday and that continued today. New smoke producing fires today from Florida up to southern North Carolina caused additional thin smoke closer to the coast. Gulf of Mexico/Western Caribbean: Several areas of thin smoke are observed this evening from over parts of the western Caribbean, eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche where some moderately dense smoke was also observed. This smoke is from agricultural burning in Mexico, Cuba, and other parts of Central America. The smoke was generally drifting to the west. DUST: Northern Texas/Southern Oklahoma: A generally hazy aerosol appeared to be drifting slowly eastward across the northern half of Texas and far southern Oklahoma. This aerosol is believed to be elevated dust particles which have traveled from upstream in places like northern Nevada and Utah as well as from southern California/southern Arizona. Sheffler 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