DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2330Z March 13, 2026
SMOKE: Central United States… Widespread agricultural burns and fire activity was observed across eastern Oklahoma and Kansas, southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Large plumes of moderate-to-heavy smoke from fires in central and western Nebraska spread across the state and moved southeast, where they merged into a larger area of light smoke that spread across much of the central United States. Smoke moved east over Kentucky and Tennessee, and moved offshore over the mid-Atlantic states. Alabama/Georgia/South Carolina… Multiple individual plumes were observed across southern Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Light-density smoke plumes moved northeast and fed into the larger area of smoke from the Central United States. Southern Texas… Multiple fires along the Gulf coast of Texas and near the Louisiana border produced large plumes of moderate smoke that moved north and then east towards Arkansas. AEROSOL/SMOKE: Mexico/Central America... Smoke from fire activity, remnant smoke from previous days, and aerosol emissions from gas flaring and other industrial activities in central and southern Mexico spread as a layer of light density smoke that extended from the southwestern Gulf of America westward over 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