DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z November 5, 2023
SMOKE: Central and Eastern U.S/Atlantic Ocean Off the U.S. East Coast/Northern Gulf of Mexico… Numerous fires from seasonal burning along with a few wildfires were seen scattered in portions of the central, south central, and southeastern U.S. along with the Mid-Atlantic region. This situation has been ongoing for a number of days now and has resulted in a growing area of remnant thin density smoke which covers a sizable part of the central and eastern U.S. and extends offshore of the U.S. east coast over some of the far western Atlantic Ocean as well as the northern Gulf of Mexico. Plumes of moderate to thick density smoke were visible spreading to the south and southeast from wildfires burning in some of the forested regions of southern West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, and near the border of far northeastern Georgia and northwestern South Carolina. Southwestern U.S./Baja/Pacific Ocean Off the Baja Coast… A couple of patches of leftover thin density smoke were seen in this region this morning. One linked to fires in central and east central Arizona was seen extending from central to northeastern Arizona. The second batch was located along and just off the northwest coast of Baja and was likely associated with fire activity in northwestern Baja. AEROSOL: Southern Mexico/Pacific Ocean South of Mexico... Areas of aerosol were seen along and off portions of southern Mexico and extending offshore to the south over the Pacific Ocean. This aerosol was believed to be primarily composed of pollutants from industrial sources in Mexico. 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