DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z February 4, 2020
SMOKE: Southeastern U.S… A large amount of what is believed to be mainly seasonal type fire activity was detected in the Southeastern U.S. along with a very significant amount of visible smoke. The smoke was seen primarily with the fires in southern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and northern and central Florida. The majority of the smoke was of thin density though some locally moderately dense to thick smoke was present closer to the source of a few of the fires. Movement of much of the smoke was generally to the north and northeast. Central California… Numerous seasonal/agricultural type fires were detected in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley regions with thin density smoke noted mainly in the San Joaquin Valley. This smoke originated from a number of the fires in the valley and quickly spread to the south with some of the various plumes merging to form larger areas of smoke. Cuba… Widespread burning occurring in Cuba resulted in extensive coverage of mainly thin density smoke across the island with some of the smoke extending offshore. DUST: California/Nevada… Areas of mainly thin density dust were visible emanating from multiple sources in west central and southern Nevada as well as southeastern California. Locally thicker dust was seen moving to the south from a source in west central Nye County near the Esmeralda County border. The dust over Nevada and interior southeastern California spread generally to the south. New Mexico… A swath of varying density blowing dust originated from the Wilcox Playa in southeastern Arizona and moved to the east-northeast reaching into west central New Mexico by later in the day. 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/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