DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z December 31, 2022
SMOKE: Cuba/Florida Strait/Gulf of Mexico… A relatively long smoke plume likely remnant from fires in northern Cuba yesterday was observed moving westward from just off the northern coast of Cuba extending northwestward. Isolated active smoke plumes were also observed across the island, with most smoke moving between northward and westward. Gulf of California… What is likely remnant smoke was observed traveling southeastward across the Gulf of California. This smoke would likely have been produced from fire activity over northwestern Mexico late yesterday. Elsewhere (mainly central and Eastern CONUS)… Although widespread fire activity was noted from the southeast into the Mid-Atlantic...along with across the Plains states...very little smoke was analyzed. This is likely due to the presence of scattered cloud cover over portions of these areas coupled with snowpack from Nebraska and Colorado northward that made analysis of smoke difficult. SMOKE/AEROSOLS: Pacific Ocean/southwestern Mexico/Guatemalan Coast/Gulf of Mexico/ Bay of Campeche… The persistent area of smoke and aerosol mixture was observed today extending from the coasts of far southern Sonora, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, and far western Michoacan west-southwestward off the coast between 1800 and 2000 miles. Another area of smoke and aerosol was seen extending 250 miles south-southwest off the Guatemalan coast. A third area was seen across the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and western Bay of Campeche that was obscured by clouds but observed through breaks in the cloud cover. Hosley 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