DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0305Z April 18, 2020
SMOKE: Southern Mexico/Central America/Gulf of Mexico/Central Florida… An enormous amount of fire activity throughout southern Mexico, into the Yucatan peninsula and down into Central America has generate new and residual smoke lingering over the region and extending into the southern and central Gulf of Mexico prior to extending eastward across central Florida. Smoke over southern Mexico and Central America, as well as the Bay of Campeche and just off of the Yucatan peninsula was medium-to-heavy in density, while light smoke covered a majority of central and southern Mexico, as well as the Gulf of Mexico and central Florida. Cuba… Widespread fire activity was emitting light-to-medium density smoke moving primarily west-southwest offshore of the southern and western shores of the island. Central Plains… Continued agricultural burns in the central plains were emitting primarily light density smoke plumes moving mostly south throughout Kansas and Oklahoma. Southeastern U.S… Continued fire activity in Georgia, northern Florida and Alabama was producing primarily light density smoke moving north prior to cloud cover obscuring visibility. EARLIER THIS AFTERNOON... SMOKE: Southern Mexico/Central America/Gulf of Mexico…. A large number of fires over the past few days have generated a large area of smoke that extended over much of the western Gulf of Mexico and southern Texas south through eastern and into southern Mexico and Central America. The smoke then extended west into the eastern Pacific Ocean. Within this area of smoke the highest density smoke extended from the western Gulf of Mexico into Central America and into the coastal eastern Pacific Ocean. Levine 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