DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 14, 2021
SMOKE: Portions of the Southwestern, Central, and Eastern U.S./Extreme Southeastern Canada/Gulf of Mexico/Western Atlantic/Northern and Northwestern Mexico/Pacific off the west coast of Mexico… The very large area of mainly thin density smoke was still visible this morning covering much of northern and northwestern Mexico, and across the U.S. from the Southwest and Rockies eastward to off the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastal regions. The smoke also appeared over the northern Gulf of Mexico and over Baja and the eastern Pacific to the west and southwest of Baja. Within this large mass of thinner density smoke were thicker areas which included portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Another relatively thicker batch of smoke was located over northwestern Mexico, the Gulf of California, Baja, and just west of Baja. As was the case yesterday, much of the northern and eastern portion of the huge area of thinner density smoke across the U.S. and off the east coast and the thicker smoke over the Southwestern U.S. and Rocky Mountain region was mainly due to larger wildfires burning especially in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The smoke over Mexico, the Gulf of California, Baja, and the eastern Pacific was primarily due to the batch of larger fires in western Mexico. However, some of the smoke from the Mexico fires was being transported to the north and northeast and may also now be contributing to some of the smoke especially in the Southwestern U.S. DUST: Tropical Atlantic Ocean to the Yucatan Peninsula… A rather thin area of Saharan dust was seen from the central Caribbean Sea extending west through the western Caribbean Islands and into Central America, southeastern Mexico and the southern Gulf of Mexico. The dust also was visible across portions of the Bahamas and to the north of the Bahamas. A much larger and thicker area of Saharan dust stretched from just east of Puerto Rico over much of the tropical and subtropical Atlantic to the western coast of Africa. 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