DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z May 10, 2021
SMOKE: North Central United States... A region of remnant light density smoke attributed to recent agricultural and seasonal fire activity in South-central Canada’s Saskatchewan/Manitoba Provinces and the Northern Plains was observed. Light density smoke was observed over parts of Eastern Montana, the Dakotas, Eastern Nebraska, Southern Minnesota, and most of Iowa in earlier GOES visible satellite imagery. South Texas/Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Mexico/Central America/Southwestern Caribbean Sea/Pacific south of Mexico... A broad region of light to moderate density and several regions of moderate to thick density smoke attributed to ongoing widespread agricultural and seasonal fire activity was observed. Light to moderate density smoke was observed over most of the Western Gulf of Mexico. Light density smoke was observed over parts of South Texas, however smoke analysis over Texas was difficult due to cloud cover from a weather system in the region. Moderate to thick density smoke was observed over most of the Mexican states of Veracruz and western Tabasco as well as over parts of the western Bay of Campeche. Light to moderate density smoke was also observed over parts of Central America including Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as well as over parts of the Southwestern Caribbean Sea. Light to moderate density smoke was also observed over a large region of Western/Southwestern Mexico, over the Southern Gulf of California, and to the south of Mexico offshore over the Eastern Pacific Ocean in recent GOES visible satellite imagery. DUST: Eastern/Central Atlantic Ocean and east of the Lesser Antilles... A large region of light density Saharan dust was observed across most of the Eastern and Central Tropical Atlantic Ocean. Saharan dust was also observed just to the southeast of the Lesser Antilles region of the Eastern Caribbean in this morning’s GOES visible satellite imagery. Sambucci 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