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