Tuesday, May 9th, 2017

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0330Z May 10, 2017

SMOKE:
Florida/Georgia/Eastern Gulf of Mexico/Western Atlantic...
The West Mims wildfire was still producing an area of dense smoke which
spread eastward over northeastern Florida during the day. A larger region
of thin to moderately dense smoke moved to the south covering much of the
Florida peninsula. The smoke fanned out as well as it moved southward
with some of it shifting west and off the west coast over the eastern
Gulf of Mexico while another portion of the smoke exited the east coast
of Florida and over the western Atlantic.

Texas/Mexico/Western Gulf of Mexico...
A large area of thin to moderately dense smoke from the ongoing seasonal
fires burning in Mexico and Central America blanked much of Mexico as well
as the Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico. The smoke appeared
to reach into southern and central Texas and possibly farther to the
north though cloudiness interfered with detection from satellite imagery.

Unknown Aerosol:
South Central US...
An Unknown aerosol which may be at least partly composed of leftover smoke
from the Mexican and Central American fires as well as smoke from some of
the larger recent burning occurring in the south central US (especially
the fires in far eastern Texas and Louisiana) was seen across the region
from Oklahoma and Kansas eastward to Kentucky and Tennessee.

DUST:
Northern Mexico/Southern New Mexico/Western Texas...
An area of thin to moderately dense blowing dust originated from a number
of sources in northern Mexico and spread to the east and northeast into
southern New Mexico and far western Texas including El Paso. Cloudiness
over much of the remainder of the Southwestern US limited additional
dust detection from 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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.