DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z March 23, 2020
SMOKE:
South Florida and the Bahamas…
Light smoke emitted by fires south of Lake Okeechobee, as well as by
fires on the northernmost island of the Bahamas, was moving off towards
the north throughout the afternoon.
The Plains States…
From the northern Texas Peninsula into Kansas and Colorado, a handful
of agricultural burns were producing mainly light smoke, although one
in central Kansas produced two thicker puffs of smoke. The smoke emitted
here was moving off toward the north or north-northwest.
Cuba…
Widespread fire activity throughout much of Cuba was emitting smoke that
blanketed nearly all of southern Cuba. A few individual smoke plumes
were moderate in density. The smoke from the northernmost fires was
moving north, while smoke from most other places throughout Cuba was
moving off toward the west-southwest.
Mexico…
Fires throughout much of Mexico were producing detectable smoke plumes
this afternoon. The greatest smoke production was emanating from the
Yucatan Peninsula, where varying density smoke was moving off towards the
west-northwest. Gas flaring activity in the Bay of Campeche was producing
light smoke that was moving more northwest to north-northwest. Smoke
along the southern coast of Mexico was moving east-northeast while smoke
in the interior was moving mainly west-southwest and due south. Smoke
emitted from fire activity in Tamaulipas was moving north.
Elsewhere…
Although only one smoke plume was noted across the Florida Panhandle into
southern Georgia, it is likely more smoke was present this afternoon
given the amount of fire activity observed and the presence of cloud
cover that made analysis of smoke here nearly impossible. Cloud cover
was also present across much of Canada and the eastern CONUS hampering
the ability to analyze fire and smoke activity in those areas.
BLOWING DUST:
Central Oregon…
Winds were observed lofting dust from the Christmas Valley Sand Dunes
in central Oregon. These winds were blowing the dust off to the east.
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