Wednesday, April 14, 2021

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0150Z April 15, 2021

SMOKE:
Conus U.S./Canada:
Widespread heavy agricultural fire activity and and embedded wildfires
were visible across Central and Southeastern U.S. today. This afternoon
most of the Conus U.S. and Canada became mostly cloud covered excluding
a full analysis of smoke plumes, what was visible is below.

Central U.S…
A swath of thin density smoke was visible through the clouds spreading
from eastern Colorado and New Mexico east through most of Oklahoma and
southern Kansas extending east across most of Missouri and southern Iowa
ending in Illinois. This smoke was due to concentrated seasonal fire
activity centered mainly over eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma
were a patch of moderate dense smoke was seen through the clouds.

California...
In central California a light density smoke plume possibly attributed
to wildfires was observed moving south in direction.

Oregon...
In western Oregon 3 light density smoke plumes and one moderate density
smoke plume probably attributed to wildfires were observed moving south
in direction.

Texas, Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Mexico/Central America/Pacific
south of Mexico…
A huge area of thin to moderate density smoke was seen  covering much
of eastern and southern Mexico, northern Central America, a portion of
the Pacific south of Mexico, the Bay of Campeche, virtually all of the
Gulf of Mexico, and extending northward into southern Texas. Embedded
patches of moderate to thick density smoke were visible in association
with some of the more active fires especially in Mexico, and along
the coast of eastern Mexico and the far western Gulf of Mexico and
extending northward into far southern Texas though cloud cover farther
to the north did interfere with additional information on the extent and
density of the smoke in satellite imagery. This entire area of smoke was
due mainly to the ongoing seasonal fires in Mexico and Central America
though some contribution from local seasonal fires in the Southeastern
U.S. is possible with the portion of the smoke in that region.

Cuba...
Widespread agricultural fire activity and and embedded wildfires were
observed throughout Cuba causing a large area of light density smoke
around the island with embedded patches of moderate to thick density smoke
along the southern coast and through the northern half of the island.

DUST:
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado...
A large area of blowing dust kicked up where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah,
and Colorado all meet and was seen blowing northeast through the clouds.

Eglin


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

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.