DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0140Z May 6, 2020

SMOKE:
Southern Texas/Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Central America/Eastern Pacific…
An enormous area of primarily light density smoke emitting from a
tremendous amount of fire activity throughout southern Mexico and into
Central America.  The area of smoke extended over central and southern
Mexico, into the eastern Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and northward into
portions of Texas.  Within this region of light density smoke, smaller
areas of medium and heavy density smoke were observed in southern Mexico.
Cloud cover this evening obscured much of the visibility.

Montana…
Scattered fire activity throughout the region and northern plains was
emitting scattered plumes of light density smoke.



EARLIER THIS AFTERNOON...
SMOKE:
Southern Texas/Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Central America/Pacific south of
Mexico and Central America…
The tremendous amount of seasonal fires detected in southern and
southeastern Mexico and Central America resulted in a very large area
of smoke extending from most of the western and central Gulf of Mexico
and south Texas extending south through eastern and southeastern Mexico,
Central America and portions of the eastern Pacific Ocean.  Within this
area of smoke, an area of moderate to high density smoke extended from
portions of the southwest Gulf of Mexico into portions of southern Mexico.

DUST:
Caribbean Sea….
An area of Saharan Dust was located over most of the Caribbean Sea
extending west into portions of Central America.

Levine

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:   http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS:    ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML:    http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
        http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)

ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO:
SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov

Unless otherwise indicated:

Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.

Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.

A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.

Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.