DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z February 9, 2023
SMOKE: Southeastern CONUS… Widespread agricultural burning was noted across the southeastern CONUS this afternoon and evening. This activity was producing scattered to, in some spots, widespread smoke production. Smoke was generally light with a couple burns producing small or ephemeral moderate density smoke. Smoke was generally moving west across the Florida Peninsula, northwest across the Florida Panhandle, and north-northwest across southwestern Alabama and southern Georgia. It is likely that more agricultural burning and light smoke production also occurred from western Alabama into Texas and Arkansas, but due to a storm system moving across the Red River Valley and into the Mid-Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys, widespread cloud cover was present. UNKNOWN AEROSOL: Pacific off of California… An area of unknown aerosol was observed off the coast of California moving south-southeast along the coast. California’s Central Valley… Some aerosol was observed today throughout much of California’s Central Valley. The aerosol layer appeared to increase in thickness as one looks further south and east in the valley, likely as a result of flow moving from the Bay Area into the valley, accumulating and concentrating aerosol in the areas mentioned. From Earlier… SMOKE/AEROSOL/DUST: Gulf of Mexico, Eastern and Southern Mexico, Northwestern Central America and the Pacific Ocean South of Southern Mexico and Northwestern Central America… Similar to recent days, a very large area of a mixture of primarily thin smoke, industrial aerosol and dust was seen over coastal regions of the western and northern Gulf Coasts states of the United States, most of the 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. 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