DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z March 17, 2022
SMOKE: South Central, Central, and Southeastern U.S./Great Lakes Region… A large swath of leftover thin density smoke was visible this morning covering much of Texas and extending to the northeast across portions of the central U.S. and over the southern and eastern part of the Great Lakes region. The thin density smoke also extended from Texas to the east over the Gulf coast region, Gulf of Mexico, and over Florida before curving to the northeast paralleling the southeast U.S. coast to off the North Carolina coast. Cloud cover over the interior of the Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the southern part of the northeastern U.S. limited additional information from satellite imagery on the extent of the smoke in those regions. The source of the smoke is recent widespread significant mainly seasonal type fire activity in the south central and central U.S. It is also possible that some of the smoke from ongoing seasonal fires and other industrial type aerosols from Mexico are mixed in especially over the southern parts of the large smoke area. Cuba… Mostly light density smoke from recent rounds of seasonal burning in Cuba was seen this morning over most of Cuba and extending to the north of the island toward the Florida Keys and to the south of the island over the nearby Caribbean. SMOKE/AEROSOL: South Central and Southeastern U.S./Gulf of Mexico/Southern and Eastern Mexico/Central America/Pacific Ocean off South of Mexico and Central America… A large area of mostly light density smoke with embedded smaller patches of moderate density smoke mixed with aerosols from oil and gas flaring and other industrial sources in Mexico and Central America was observed over much of the Gulf of Mexico, central, eastern, and southern Mexico, a portion of Central America, and extending well south of the southern Mexico and Central America coastline over the Pacific Ocean. The embedded moderate areas of smoke/aerosol were seen over eastern Mexico and the western part of the Bay of Campeche, and along a portion of the southern coastal areas of Mexico and Guatemala, and extending south of there over the Pacific. It is possible that some of this aerosol/smoke has spread northward into the Southern and Southeastern U.S. where it mixes with smoke from the seasonal fire activity occurring in the central and south central U.S. 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 map: https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg Smoke data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Smoke_Polygons Fire data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Fire_Points ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov