DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z February 8, 2023
SMOKE: Southeastern CONUS… Widespread agricultural burning continues all across the southeastern CONUS today. Light to, at times, moderate smoke was observed emanating from some of the activity with most smoke moving off toward the west or west-northwest across Florida and toward the north-northeast elsewhere across the southeastern CONUS. Of note is the presence of scattered to broken cirrus cloud cover that hampered the ability to analyze smoke over many portions of the southeast, even where some smoke was still analyzed. Slightly more substantial cloud cover was present over Mississippi with even more substantial cloud cover over Texas and Arkansas. Central Plains… A few scattered light smoke plumes were produced from more widespread agricultural burning extending from eastern Nebraska into northern Missouri. The smoke plumes were generally noted across southeastern Nebraska and far northwestern Missouri moving off toward the south-southeast, then south or south-southwest across Kansas. Some light smoke could be present across northern Nebraska where snow cover may limit the ability to observe light smoke. Northern Mexico/West Texas… Some very light smoke was observed being produced by fire activity in central Chihuahua. Strong winds were moving the light to very light smoke northeastward across the national border into the West Texas Panhandle. SMOKE/AEROSOL/DUST: Southern Texas/Eastern/Southern Mexico/western Gulf of Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific Ocean South of Southern Mexico and Northwestern Central America… Similar to recent days, a very large mass of a mixture of primarily thin to moderate density smoke/industrial aerosol/dust was seen over Southern Texas the western Gulf of Mexico, southern and eastern Mexico, Northwestern Central America, and extending well off the southern coast of Mexico and Northwestern Central America over the Pacific Ocean. It is believed that the western and northwestern portion of this large area was likely mainly composed of smoke from ongoing seasonal fire activity in Mexico while the areas farther to the east off the southeastern coast of Mexico and northwestern Central America were composed primarily of aerosols from industrial activities in the region and blowing dust which was seen emanating and moving to the south especially from sources in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca and the southern part of the Mexican state of Chiapas. Volcanic plumes which added to the aerosol mixture were noted spreading to the southwest and well offshore from at least a couple of volcanoes in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and from Popocatepetl near Mexico City. 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