DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z January 30, 2026
SMOKE: Honduras… A couple fires were observed across eastern Honduras, from which light smoke was seen extending southward into eastern Nicaragua Cuba… An area of light smoke was observed extending both northward to near or just inland across southwestern Florida and southward over the western Caribbean from Cuba where clouds were not obscuring the smoke. There is likely more smoke and fire present than analyzed over and near Cuba, but widespread cloud cover is preventins such analysis. Elsewhere… Widespread burning activity was seen across Missouri, the Southern Plains and Georgia today, but only a single very light smoke plume over Georgia was observed due to the presence of cloud cover and an existing snowpack that drowns out any light smoke signal. It is likely that there is at least a little more smoke present across these two areas given the current limitations. There may also be more smoke and fire present across the Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys, the Carolinas, and the Central Plains (Kansas and Oklahoma, specifically), but widespread cloud cover is obscuring anything that may be present in those areas. AEROSOL/SMOKE: Mexico/Guatemala/Bay of Campeche... Scattered fire activity across southern Mexico and the Guatemalan Coastal Plain, as well as remnant smoke and urban aerosol emission from previous days, has concentrated into a layer that extends a couple hundred miles southwestward from the Mexican and Guatemalan Coasts out over the tropical Eastern Pacific as well as over the Gulf Coastal Plain of Mexico, the western Gulf of America, the Bay of Campeche, and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Hosley 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