DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1800Z May 23, 2017
SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico/Southern Texas/Mexico/Central America... A large amount of seasonal burning continues across portions of Mexico and Central America resulting in a widespread area of thin to moderately dense smoke which covered a good portion of Mexico and Central America as well as the Bay of Campeche, the western Gulf of Mexico, and southern Texas. Locally thicker patches of smoke were located closer to the actual fires. South Florida: Fires burning in Hendry, Broward and Palm Beach counties of southern Florida are producing light to moderately dense smoke which was spreading to the northeast during the morning reaching close to the southern and southeastern portion of Lake Okeechobee. Patchy cloudiness over eastern Florida and offshore over the nearby Atlantic limited detection of any possible leftover smoke from these fires in satellite imagery. DUST: Atlantic/Caribbean/Puerto Rico... A significant region of Saharan dust continued to spread slowly to the west covering the Windward and Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, and the eastern Caribbean. 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