DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z March 8, 2020

SMOKE:
Central and South Central U.S…
Significant seasonal fire activity was present today especially
across southern and eastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, Missouri,
southern Iowa, and Illinois. Quite a few smoke plumes were also visible
in satellite imagery particularly over the northern half of Arkansas
and southern Missouri including a number of moderate to thick density
plumes. Thinner density smoke was seen in southern and eastern Oklahoma,
and Illinois though higher level cloudiness passing across the region
limited additional smoke detection during the afternoon. Much of the
smoke in this region was moving off to the north. Farther to the west,
a rapidly moving and destructive grassland fire in Beaver County of the
Oklahoma panhandle produced a very large smoke plume which fanned out as
it spread to the northeast across central Kansas and over southern and
eastern Nebraska. While the majority of the plume was of thin density, the
portion of it closer to the fire was moderately thick to locally dense.

Southeastern U.S…
Scattered seasonal fires were detected over portions of the Southeastern
U.S. along with a number of mainly thin density smoke plumes.

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

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.