DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z April 02, 2020
SMOKE: Central Plains/Mid-Mississippi Valley… A mixture of both remnant smoke from yesterday’s fire activity and smoke from today’s fire activity is responsible for a fairly large area of light to moderate smoke blanketing eastern Kansas, southeastern Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and western Illinois. Among this larger blanket, only a handful of individual smoke plumes were analyzed due to a broken cirrus deck moving over the area. There is surely more smoke than analyzed, but the cirrus deck inhibits the analysis of smoke across eastern Kansas, Missouri, southwestern Iowa, and Nebraska. It should be noted that, although still high, the magnitude of fire activity across eastern Kansas and Iowa was of noticeably lesser than in yesterday’s analysis while the level of fire activity across Illinois increased today compared to yesterday. Texas Gulf Coast… Some fire activity along the Texas Gulf Coast was producing varying density smoke this afternoon. The smoke from these fires was moving west-northwest to northwest. Southeast U.S.… Clear skies across the southeastern CONUS allowed for much more smoke and fire activity to be analyzed across much of the southeastern CONUS today. Mainly within 175 miles of the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, fire activity was producing light to moderate smoke that was moving off toward the south-southeast. Southern Florida/Bahamas… Scattered fire activity in the area south of Lake Okeechobee was producing light smoke that was moving off toward the southeast. The thick smoke from the fire on Little Abaco Island was moving off toward the east and southeast behind a cold front. Smoke was extending out over 300 miles from the parent fire into the Atlantic Ocean. Mexico/Southern Gulf of Mexico… Fire and gas flaring activity throughout southern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Honduras was responsible for producing light to moderate density smoke. Sea Breezes from the Caribbean Sea, Bay of Campeche, and the Gulf of Mexico were helping to concentrate smoke emissions across Tabasco, Chiapas, eastern Campeche, and northern Guatemala. Fire activity in western Guerrero and eastern Michoacan was also producing light to moderate density smoke. Cuba… Continued fire activity throughout Cuba was again producing thin to moderate density smoke. Much of the smoke was moving off toward the east ahead of a cold front. Hosley 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