DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z March 20, 2024
SMOKE: Central and Southeastern United States... Heavy seasonal burning across the central and southeastern U.S. was responsible a large area of mostly light density smoke extending from central U.S. eastward to the eastern and southeastern U.S., portions of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Mid-Atlantic region, and portions of the western North Atlantic. Within the large area of smoke, patches of moderate to heavy density smoke plumes were observed in the vicinity of the fires. Northwestern U.S... A few wildfires in southeast Washington, central Idaho, western-central Montana, northern-central Wyoming were observed producing light to local moderate density smoke moving eastward. Several wildfires in northern California were observed producing light density smoke moving toward northwest. AEROSOL/SMOKE: Gulf of Mexico/Yucatan Peninsula/Florida/Cuba/Caribbean Sea/Pacific Ocean south of Mexico/Central America... A large area of predominantly light smoke originating from widespread fire activity in Central America and northern South America, mixed with aerosols from a composite of volcanic emissions and industrial sources in Mexico was observed over a significant portion of the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche, where it was then seen to the east over the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, extending north along the Coastal Atlantic. This composite of smoke and aerosol was also observed covering Cuba, the Caribbean Sea, and areas of Central America and the Pacific ocean off the coast of southern Mexico and Central America. YL 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