Wednesday, May 2, 2018

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 3, 2018

SMOKE:
Florida...
Wildfires in Collier and Monroe counties of southwestern Florida were
producing moderate to thick density smoke which moved quickly to the
west and off the coast over the Gulf of Mexico.

Southeastern US/Middle-Atlantic Region...
Scattered fires were detected over a large region including the Southeast
and Middle Atlantic with a number of visible smoke plumes as well.

Mexico/Central America/Gulf of Mexico/Southern and Southeastern Texas...
A large amount of seasonal burning was noted again during the day over
Mexico and Central America which resulted in a huge area of mainly thin
density smoke which covered southeastern Mexico, Central America, the
Bay of Campeche and the western Gulf of Mexico. The leading portion of
the smoke may have reached inland over southern and southeastern Texas.

DUST:
Southwestern US/Northern Mexico...
An area of moderately dense to perhaps locally thick blowing dust
originated from numerous sources over northern Chihuahua in north central
Mexico and southern New Mexico. The area of dust spread to the northeast
over far western Texas including El Paso and southeastern and eastern
New Mexico. Farther to the west, a swath of thin density blowing dust
was seen over central Arizona.

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.