DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630Z February 26, 2023
SMOKE/AEROSOL: South Central and Southeastern United States, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean off the Southeastern United States Coast, Eastern and Southern Mexico, Northwestern Central America, Central and Western Caribbean Sea, Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Pacific South of Southern Mexico and Northwestern Central America… The sprawling area of primarily thin density smoke/aerosol was again seen over much of the same area recently impacted over the past number of days. The northern edge of the smoke/aerosol mix stretched from southern Texas eastward across the United States Gulf Coast region and extended well offshore of the southeastern United States over the Atlantic. In addition, the smoke/aerosol mix also covered the Gulf of Mexico, eastern and southern Mexico, northwestern Central America, the Pacific south of the southern coast of Mexico and northwestern Central America, the central and western part of the Caribbean Sea, most of Cuba, and part of Hispaniola. For the smoke part of the mix, smoke from seasonal fires and a few wildfires across Cuba and Hispaniola spread to the west over the Caribbean Sea and eventually merged with smoke from seasonal fire activity across Mexico and Central America which was generally moving to the north. The resultant mix then moved over the Gulf of Mexico and then to the northeast across a portion of the southeastern United States where it merged with smoke from some fire activity across the southeastern United States. For the aerosol component of the mix, aerosols from industrial activity primarily in Mexico, Central America, and Cuba were believed to be transported along with the smoke from these regions. A few patches of embedded moderately dense smoke/aerosol mix were seen south of the Florida panhandle over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, along and off the southwestern coast of Florida over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and along and off the southeastern coast of Mexico over the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the Pacific south of there. An area of moderate to thick density smoke from wildfires in western Cuba spread to the west and southwest and over the Caribbean Sea between Cuba and Jamaica. DUST: New Mexico/Northern Mexico… Strong southwesterly winds ahead of a storm system were beginning to kick up swaths of blowing dust this morning which were emanating from sources in southwestern New Mexico and the northern part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua in far north central Mexico with the dust moving quickly to the northeast. 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