DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0254Z April 15, 2021
SMOKE: 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