DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z March 1, 2017
SMOKE: Western Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche... Swaths of mainly thin density smoke attributed to seasonal burning occurring over southeastern Mexico and Central America and oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche spread to the north and northwest during the day affecting portions of the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico. An aerosol did extend farther to the north over the northwestern Gulf of Mexico in satellite imagery though it is not known how much of this is composed of smoke. Eastern Gulf of Mexico... Leftover dissipating thin density smoke from earlier fire activity in Cuba moved to the northwest and off the northwest coast of Cuba over the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Southeastern US... A few smoke plumes were visible from fires over portions of Florida and South Carolina though significant cloudiness over the remainder of the Southeast and South Central US greatly limited fire and smoke detection from satellite imagery. DUST: Southeastern Arizona/Southern New Mexico/Western and Northwestern Texas/Northern Mexico... Gusty southwesterly winds kicked up dust from a number of source regions in southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico (including White Sands), western and northwestern Texas, and northern Mexico just south of the Mexico-southwestern New Mexico border. The areas of blowing dust appeared to merge together forming a rather widespread region of thin to at least moderately dense blowing dust which moved to the east and northeast likely extending at least as far as southwestern Oklahoma and north central Texas. Cloudiness above the dust layer did limit detection of the dust from satellite imagery over western and northwestern Texas and Oklahoma and subsequently prevented viewing of the full extent of the dust. 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