DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z February 11, 2022
SMOKE: South Central and Southeastern U.S… An unusually large area of remnant thin density smoke for this time of the year was seen this morning stretching from south central and eastern Texas to the east and northeast over much of the southeastern U.S. and across the central Appalachians to a portion of the Mid-Atlantic region. Within the large area of thin density smoke was a stripe of moderate density smoke which extended from west central Louisiana to the northeast to southeastern Arkansas and west central Mississippi. All of this remnant smoke was due to yesterday’s widespread and significant amount of mainly seasonal type fire activity over the south central and southeastern U.S. Gulf of Mexico/Florida… Patches of leftover thin density smoke were present this morning over the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico and over at least a portion of the northwestern part of the Florida peninsula. This smoke was believed to be from yesterday’s seasonal fire activity in Florida though some of the smoke over the central Gulf of Mexico may be from seasonal fires in Mexico. Cuba/Caribbean/Bahamas… Leftover thin to moderate density smoke attributed to fires in Cuba was visible over eastern Cuba, the nearby Caribbean south of Cuba, and a portion of the Atlantic just north of Cuba and south of the Bahamas. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific Ocean South of Mexico and Central America/Gulf of Mexico... A combination of light density smoke from seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America along with other atmospheric pollutants including aerosols from oil/gas flaring and other industries were observed across the coastal areas of southern Mexico and northwestern Central America and extending well to the south of these areas over the eastern Pacific. A slightly thicker embedded batch of smoke/aerosol was noted along and south of the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Farther to the north, some aerosol was seen over eastern and southeastern Mexico and over the Bay of Campeche and far western Gulf of Mexico but cloud cover in these areas made detection difficult in satellite imagery so it wasn’t certain if any smoke is present there. 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