DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z February 18, 2026
SMOKE: Georgia/South Carolina… Agricultural burns continued this evening across the southeastern United States, with concentrated activity observed in Georgia and South Carolina. Light-density plumes dispersed to the north and then turned slightly east toward North Carolina. Colorado/Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas… Wildfires generated large plumes of moderate-to-thick density smoke in the central United States. The heaviest smoke was observed moving eastward from fires in northern Texas, western Oklahoma, and eastern Colorado. Blowing dust from west of the fires mixed with the smoke plumes as they expanded to cover most of Kansas and continued toward Missouri where visibility was obscured by a weather system. AEROSOL/SMOKE: Mexico/Gulf of America/Pacific Ocean… Smoke from scattered fire activity, as well as industrial aerosol emissions and remnant smoke from previous days, concentrated into an area of light-to-moderate smoke that extended southwestward off the Mexican and Guatemalan coasts into the Pacific Ocean. Smoke also spread across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and settled along the coast in the southern Gulf. 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