DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1630 April 20, 2022
SMOKE: Southwestern and South Central U.S… The Crooks Fire south of Prescott and the Tunnel Fire north of Flagstaff in Arizona as well as the Calf Canyon Fire and Hermits Peak Fire east of Santa Fe and the Cooks Peak Fire northeast of there in north central New Mexico were responsible for a sizable area of varying density smoke which stretched across central, north central, and northeastern Arizona, all of northern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, and the western portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Cloud cover farther to the east over the Central and Southern Plains prevented additional information on the eastward extent of the smoke through satellite imagery. Swaths of moderately dense to thick smoke were seen moving to the northeast from the fires in Arizona with detached patches of moderate density smoke from the Tunnel fire also extending over north central New Mexico. Thick smoke from the Cooks Peak Fire in north central New Mexico spread to the southeast reaching northwestern Texas near Amarillo this morning. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Southern and Eastern Mexico/Central America/Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Pacific Ocean South of Mexico and Central America... The usual large mass of light to moderate density smoke from seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America mixed with aerosols from oil and gas flaring and other industrial sources in that region was observed covering much of southern and eastern Mexico, a portion of Central America, the Bay of Campeche and far western Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific extending well off the southern coast of Mexico and Central America. A few smaller embedded patches of thick density smoke were visible particularly over a few spots in southern and southeastern Mexico. Significant cloud cover was present over the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and inland over Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi so it could not be determined through satellite imagery if any smoke/aerosol was there this morning. DUST: Colorado/Kansas/Nebraska… A thin density aerosol was visible this morning moving to the east over east central and northeastern Colorado, western and central Nebraska, and northwestern Kansas. This possibly could be blowing dust kicked up by gusty easterly winds over the High Plains to the east of the Front Range of the central Rockies. 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