DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z January 30, 2020
SMOKE:
South Florida...
Numerous small agricultural fires were seen to the south of Lake
Okeechobee this afternoon producing light-density smoke. The plumes were
dispersing towards the northeast-east.
Southern Texas...
About a dozen large prescribed burns were active throughout the afternoon
along the coastal areas between Galveston Island and Corpus Christi,
with elongated moderate-intensity smoke plumes extending towards the
southeast and over the western Gulf of Mexico for approximately 150
miles. Additionally, small/short-duration fires were seen in southern
and central Texas with light-density smoke spreading towards the
south-southeast.
British Columbia...
A large plume likely originated from biomass burning in southeast Asia
was seen traveling eastward across the northern Pacific reaching British
Columbia.
Northern Mexico...
A large concentration of land-management fires were seen at the state
of Chihuahua in northern Mexico where several smoke plumes combined to
form a larger plume of moderate intensity traveling northeastward for
approximately 150 miles reaching the Texas state border.
Southern Gulf of Mexico and Guatemala...
Two large plumes consisting of remnant smoke from previous days fires
covered much of the southern Gulf of Mexico to the north, and Guatemala,
Belize and Gulf of Honduras to the south.
DUST:
Southern California...
Blowing dust was observed off the salt well on the Searles Valley in
southern California, dispersing to the south-southwest towards Palmdale. A
second area of blowing dust could also be seen off sandy soils to the west
of the Salton Sea and dispersing south towards the U.S.-Mexico border.
WS
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/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS: ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)
ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO:
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov