DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z April 21, 2022
SMOKE: Southwestern,South Central, and Central U.S... The Crooks Fire south of Prescott and the Tunnel Fire north of Flagstaff in Arizona as well as the Calf Canyon Fire and Hermits Peak Fire east of Santa Fe and the Cooks Peak Fire northeast of there in north central New Mexico were responsible for a sizable area of varying density smoke which stretched across central, north central, and northeastern Arizona, all of northern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, over southern/eastern Kansas, southern/east-central Oklahoma, and northern Texas. Cloud cover farther to the east over the Central and Southern Plains prevented additional information on the eastward extent of the smoke through satellite imagery. Swaths of moderately dense to thick smoke were seen moving to the northeast from the fires in Arizona with detached patches of moderate density smoke from the Tunnel fire also extending over north central New Mexico. Thick smoke from the Cooks Peak Fire in north central New Mexico spread to the southeast reaching northwestern Texas near Amarillo this evening. Southeastern U.S... Agricultural and seasonal burning activity was observed over portions of the southeast U.S. including Florida, southern Mississippi, southern Georgia, and coastal South Carolina. Light density smoke was observed from the fire activity. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Southern and Eastern Mexico/Central America/Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Pacific Ocean South of Mexico and Central America... A broad and expansive region of light, moderate, and several region of thick density smoke from seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America mixed with aerosols from oil and gas flaring and other industrial sources in that region was observed this evening covering much of southern and eastern Mexico, as well as a large portion of Central America, the Bay of Campeche, the far western Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific extending well off the southern coast of Mexico and Central America. A few smaller embedded regions thick density smoke were visible particularly over parts of southern and southeastern Mexico and Central America where widespread seasonal burning was seen this evening. Significant cloud cover was present over the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and inland over Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, so it was difficult to determine through satellite imagery if any smoke/aerosols were over the region of the U.S. this evening. DUST: Arizona/Colorado/California/Nevada/Kansas/Nebraska/New Mexico/West Texas... Earlier today, a thin density aerosol was visible this morning moving to the east over east central and northeastern Colorado, western and central Nebraska, and northwestern Kansas. The aerosol is likely blowing dust kicked up by gusty easterly winds over the High Plains to the east of the Front Range of the central Rockies. Blowing dust was also observed over parts of California, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Mexico, Arizona, and West Texas this evening. Central Pacific... A region of unknown aerosols which is believed to be dust was observed several hundered miles northeast of Hawaii over part of the central pacific this evening. 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 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