DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z January 2, 2022
SMOKE: Southern Florida… More agricultural fire activity on the western, southern, and eastern periphery of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida resulted in thin to very localized moderate density smoke plumes which quickly thinned out as they spread to the north. Hispaniola/Cuba/Caribbean… A couple of wildfire complexes in the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic and southeastern Haiti were emitting moderately dense to locally thick smoke which spread to the west while fanning out and thinning out over a portion of the Caribbean to the north of Jamaica and across western Cuba. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Northwestern Cuba/Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Pacific Ocean off southern Mexico and Guatemala coastlines...Aerosol plumes linked to gas flaring and other urban/industrial activities were seen originating from northwestern Cuba and moving to the north over the eastern Gulf of Mexico possibly spreading inland over west central Florida. Relatively large patches of primarily thin density aerosol associated with gas flaring and other urban/industrial activities, with additional contribution from scattered regional fire activity were seen this morning across portions of southern Mexico and off the coast of southern Mexico and northwestern Central America extending well out over the tropical eastern Pacific. Farther to the north, more aerosol composed of smoke and other atmospheric pollutants was seen across eastern Mexico, the Bay of Campeche, and the western and central Gulf of Mexico with the aerosol likely extending over the northern Gulf of Mexico and inland over the central Gulf coast region though cloud cover there limited information on the extent of the aerosol in satellite imagery. JS 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