DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z MAY 27, 2020
SMOKE:
Mexico/Western Gulf of Mexico/Central America…
Fire activity remains widespread across western, southern, and eastern
Mexico into Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. The resulting area of smoke
produced by fire activity from the past few days (including today)
spans from near southern Louisiana over western Cuba and northern
Honduras. Heavy density smoke was observed mainly across the Bay of
Campeche into the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican states
of Veracruz, Tabasco, and Campeche. Medium density smoke has expanded
farther north and east into the central Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan
Channel. This large area of smoke was being corralled by a front/trough
draped over the Gulf of Mexico, which was also drawing some of the smoke
east toward the Florida Keys. A second frontal system was helping to draw
some smoke north into Louisiana but continue to shunt the smoke south
in its wake. Smoke plumes of varying density were also observed along
the western coast of Mexico moving in various directions, influenced
heavily by terrain flow.
California…
A fire at a tomato packaging plant in Stockton was observed producing
black smoke early this afternoon. The smoke dissipated throughout the
late afternoon and evening.
Elsewhere…
Of note are two areas with a cluster of fire points: central Texas and
from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta into North Dakota. Cloud cover,
mainly fair weather in nature, was hampering any ability to analyze smoke
in these areas. It is likely that at least some smoke was present across
these two regions but was obscured by said cloud cover.
BLOWING DUST:
Caribbean Sea…
A smaller area of Saharan dust was meandering through the central
Caribbean this afternoon, moving west to west-northwest. Some of the dust
present yesterday has dissipated or thinned out too much to be noticeable.
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