DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z April 21, 2026
SMOKE: Southern/Central Plains into the Great Lakes and Tennessee/Ohio Valleys… Remnant smoke from a combination of agricultural burning across the plains and remnant smoke from wildfires in central Montana were helping to produce an area of light to moderate smoke that was blanketing an area from northeastern Texas and eastern Colorado to southern Ontario and western New York and western Pennsylvania. A majority is from the agricultural burning, but a stripe of smoke from the Montana fires was also seen from southeastern Montana east-southeastward to over the Omaha, NE metro area. One active fire was noted across far north-central Oklahoma with a smoke plume moving north-northeastward. Georgia/South Carolina/Florida… A wildfire in far southern Georgia continues to burn from yesterday. Thick smoke was observed emanating from the wildfire, with some contributions also seen from some smaller fires that also burned overnight across coastal Georgia and perhaps coastal South Carolina. It appears smoke was moving northeastward overnight, but a wind shift was causing smoke to move eastward from fires along the Georgia coast and southwestward from fires in South Carolina, central and southern Georgia, and north Florida including the panhandle. The smoke from the larger wildfire was seen extending as far west over the northern Gulf of America as the Texas/Louisiana border. South Florida… Agricultural burning across the areas around and south of Lake Okeechobee was observed producing light smoke that was moving off toward the west-southwest to just about the Gulf Coast of Florida. Elsewhere… Across much of southern Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as across central Montana, broken to widespread cloud cover was not allowing for the analysis of smoke in these areas, where climatology and yesterday’s analysis hints there could be smoke-producing fire activity in these areas. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Mexico/Pacific Ocean/Guatemalan Coast/Western Gulf of America… Smoke from fire activity, remnant smoke from previous days, and aerosol emissions from gas flaring and other industrial activities contributed to a layer of light-density smoke/aerosol that was blanketing an area covering much of southern Mexico, the Yucatan, and the tropical Eastern Pacific. Some maybe extending northward along the Mexican Gulf Coast, but cloud cover did not allow for definitive smoke analysis here. 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