DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1930Z May 28, 2017
SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico into southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley... The burning continues in the Yucatan and Central America and this has generated a large area of light to moderately dense smoke that covers much of the Gulf and extends into the Bahamas. The smoke is most notable over the western Gulf where it has been drawn northward. The full extent could not be determined due to cloud cover. In areas of the eastern Gulf and the Bahamas the smoke is mixed with Saharan dust that has crossed the Atlantic. Southwest US... Fires in central and east central Arizona and western New Mexico were generating plumes of light to moderately dense smoke, with locally dense areas near the fires. These plumes were generally extending to the west observed to be burning overnight and emitting smoke plumes that were traveling west to north west. Florida... A large fire south of Lake Okeechobee was observed burning and emitting smoke plumes this morning. The fire was one that continued from the previous night. The smoke plume was traveling east out into the Atlantic. DUST: Western Atlantic/Caribbean/Cuba/Bahamas/Gulf of Mexico... A significant surge of Saharan dust has pushed west across the Caribbean and into the southeast Gulf of Mexico where it appears to have mixed with smoke from the seasonal burning in Mexico and Central America and hindered determination of the full extent of the dust. -Westbrook 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