DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z MAY 25, 2020
SMOKE: Mexico/Western Gulf of Mexico/Northern Central America… Fire activity remains widespread across western, southern, and eastern Mexico into Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. The resulting area of smoke produced by this fire activity from the past few days expands from southern Texas into El Salvador and across the Yucatan Channel. The smoke is being incorporated within a trough over Florida, western Cuba, and the Isle of Youth, while separate system over the northwestern Gulf of Mexico is helping to move some of this smoke into northeastern Mexico and far southern Texas. The densest smoke resides across the Mexican state of Guerrero, where intense fire activity is emitting thick smoke. A couple other fires scattered throughout Mexico are also producing thick smoke, with larger areas of moderate density smoke over the Bay of Campeche and the Mexican states of Tabasco and Veracruz. South-central Canada and the Valley of the Red River of the North… Fire activity throughout southern and central Saskatchewan into western Alberta was observed producing light to moderate density smoke this afternoon. Even though some smoke was analyzed, given the scattered cloud cover over the region, more smoke is likely present that could not be analyzed. The same is true for the fire activity along the North Dakota and Minnesota border. The observed smoke was moving in different directions due to relatively small surface pressure features across the region and with the region residing between two larger troughs/cyclones. Maritime Canada… Two fires in Maritime Canada, one in New Brunswick and the other in Nova Scotia, were observed producing moderate to thick smoke this afternoon and evening. The smoke from these fires was moving off toward the northeast Dust: A large area of lofted Saharan dust was observed moving westward and west-northwestward across the Caribbean Sea and into a trough over Florida and the western Caribbean. 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