DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z May 14, 2022
SMOKE: Central, South Central, and Southeastern U.S./Great Lakes Region/Maine/Southeastern Canada/Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico... The large Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon wildfires in north-central New Mexico and the Bear Trap Fire in southeastern New Mexico continued to emit significant smoke this morning. Moderately dense smoke from the Bear Trap Fire was seen mainly over south central New Mexico while a larger area of moderately dense to thick smoke from the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires was visible extending to the east over northeastern New Mexico and across a good portion of Oklahoma along with northern Texas. A much larger mass of thin to moderate density smoke primarily attributed to the New Mexico wildfires could be seen over much of the central and south central U.S. and a portion of the southeastern U.S. Thin density smoke also covered virtually all of the Gulf of Mexico with some of this smoke possibly having originated from the ongoing large amount of seasonal burning and a few wildfires scattered over Mexico and Central America. The area of thin to moderate density smoke narrowed a bit as it extended northward over the western Great Lakes region and up over eastern Ontario in Canada. From there, the smoke stretched to the east and southeast over southern Quebec and northern Maine and off the Canadian Maritimes region well out over the Atlantic. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Mexico/Gulf of Mexico/Pacific South of Mexico and Central America... A very large mass of mostly light to moderate density smoke primarily from widespread seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America and possibly mixed with aerosols from oil/gas flaring and other industrial sources in the region was observed over much of Mexico and at least the northern part of Central America. The smoke/aerosol mixture also covered much of the Gulf of Mexico and possibly extended northward over the western U.S. Gulf Coast region where it likely mixed with smoke from the New Mexico wildfires. In addition, the smoke stretched well south of the southern coast of Mexico and Central America over the Pacific. The thickest smoke which was moderate to locally thick in density was located mainly over southern and southeastern Mexico, northwestern Central America, and offshore to the south over the Pacific. 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