DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z March 2, 2018
SMOKE: Southern and Southeastern Texas/Offshore of Southern and Southeastern Texas... Numerous fires were detected scattered across southeastern and southern Texas. A few of these fires produced moderately dense to thick smoke plumes which thinned out as they spread to the south and offshore of the southeastern and southern Texas coast. Central and South Central US... Scattered fires and individual smoke plumes were present over the Central and South Central US mainly affecting Kansas, western Missouri, Oklahoma, and western and northwestern Texas. Florida... Numerous fires over the southern half of Florida resulted in a number of smoke plumes with a few merging to form a larger patch of mainly thin density smoke which eventually moved to the east and offshore of the east coast of the state. Farther to the south, seasonal burning over Cuba produced thin density smoke which moved northward nearly reaching the western Keys. DUST AND SMOKE COMBINATION: Bay of Campeche/Western Gulf of Mexico... A combination of smoke from some seasonal burning occurring in eastern Mexico and southern and southeastern Texas, smoke from oil rig flaring in the Bay of Campeche, and possible blowing dust from eastern Mexico was present over a portion of the Bay of Campeche and the far western Gulf of Mexico. 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