Thursday, January 22, 2026

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z January 22, 2026

SMOKE:
Eastern United States...
Agricultural fires continued in the Mississippi Valley from northeast
Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. A few individual plumes were
observed in Georgia. Much cloud cover throughout the east obscured the
full extent of a large area of light smoke that was drifting northeast
from Tennessee and Kentucky towards the Mid-Atlantic and up the coast
towards Maine.

Eastern Mexico...
Light smoke was observed moving east and offshore from the Gulf Coast
of Mexico. Smoke drifted across the Gulf and central Florida where it
appeared to mix with the large area of light smoke in the eastern United
States as it moved northeast along the Atlantic coast.

AEROSOL/SMOKE:
Mexico/Pacific Ocean...
An area of light-density smoke was observed across the southern coast
of Mexico which moved offshore to the southwest into the Pacific.

Mills


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
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

 


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.