DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z May 22, 2022
SMOKE: New Mexico/Texas/Oklahoma… Several wildfires continue to burn in north central and southwestern Oklahoma this morning. The Black Fire in the Gila National Forest of southwestern New Mexico appeared to be the most active and was responsible for a plume of moderate to thick density smoke which spread to the east and northeast reaching northwestern Texas including Amarillo and western and central Oklahoma including Oklahoma City. Cloud cover farther to the east over the Mississippi and Ohio Valley regions prevented smoke identification in satellite imagery. Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S./Western Atlantic off the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. Coast and off of far southeastern Canada… Remnant thin density smoke which is likely primarily from the New Mexico wildfires was seen this morning across the Mid-Atlantic region and northeastern U.S., far southeastern Canada, and over the Atlantic off the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S. coast and along and south of the Canadian Maritimes. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Texas/Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Western Gulf of Mexico/Pacific South of Mexico… A large area of mostly light to moderate density smoke from widespread ongoing seasonal fire activity and a few wildfires mixed with aerosols from oil/gas flaring and other industrial sources in Mexico was observed covering most of Mexico with the exception of northwestern Mexico, far northwestern Central America, the western Gulf of Mexico, and extending well offshore to the south of Mexico over the Pacific. The smoke/aerosol was being transported to the north and likely reached inland over the U.S. across Texas and possibly even farther to the north where it eventually mixed with smoke from the New Mexico wildfires. Within the larger area of thin to moderate density smoke were embedded patches of thick smoke which were scattered mainly across southern and southeastern Mexico. BLOWING DUST: Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean Sea… The huge area of Saharan Dust continued to progress slowly to the west across the subtropical and tropical Atlantic and over the entire Caribbean region and from there extending northwest across the Bahamas, Florida, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The dust may extend farther inland over the southeastern U.S. but enough cloud cover over the Southeast limited information on that through satellite imagery. 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