DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z March 7, 2023
SMOKE/AEROSOL: South Central and Southeastern U.S./Atlantic Ocean off the Southeast U.S. Coast/Gulf of Mexico/Hispaniola/Cuba/Jamaica/Caribbean Sea/Eastern and Southern Mexico/Northwestern Central America/Pacific Ocean off the Southern Coast of Mexico and Central America… The enormous mass of a mixture of smoke from significant seasonal fire activity and a few wildfires scattered across Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Mexico, Central America, and the south central and southeastern U.S. along with aerosols from industrial activities occurring especially in Cuba, Hispaniola, Mexico, and Central America was again seen this morning covering a very large area. The area impacted included the south central and southeastern U.S. and extending offshore over portions of the far western Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, southern and eastern Mexico, Central America, the Pacific well off the coast of southern Mexico and Central America, the central and western Caribbean Sea, Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola. As the season has progressed, it is now more likely that the majority of what is seen in satellite imagery is composed more of smoke than earlier in the year. Within the larger surrounding mass of generally thinner density smoke/aerosol were patches of moderately dense leftover smoke which were visible over western Cuba, the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula, portions of the Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Campeche, and eastern Mexico. This smoke was believed to be from significant seasonal fire activity and a few wildfires occurring in Cuba and eastern and southeastern Mexico. Farther to the north and northeast, areas of remnant moderate to even locally thick density smoke were seen stretching from eastern Arkansas to northern and central Alabama which was attributed to yesterday’s round of intense seasonal fire activity in and near that region. Also, areas of moderately dense leftover smoke were noted along and off the southeastern U.S. coast over the far western Atlantic which were likely from yesterday’s concentrated round of seasonal fires burning in the southeastern U.S. 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