Smoke Invades the South Plains from the North (March 7, 2017)

Smoke Invades the South Plains from the North 7 March 2017

Aqua satellite imagery captured Tuesday afternoon (March 7, 2017). The grey areas over much of West Texas, southeast New Mexico and western Oklahoma are areas of smoke. Freshly burned ground is also visualized as black, with large burn scars noted north of Amarillo as well as from the northeast Texas Panhandle into south-central Kansas. Active fires can still be scene puffing out smoke over this same area.

After a warm, windy and dry start to the week (Monday, 6 March 2017) that helped fuel large and deadly wildfires in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles as well as southern Kansas, cooler air filtered into the region behind a cold front early Tuesday. Temperatures dropped back toward average behind the front, though that was not the main story. The northerly and northeasterly winds that followed the front also carried southward large amounts of smoke from the huge fires still burning well to the north of the South Plains.


Satellite image sensed around 4 am on Tuesday (March 7, 2017). The brighter blues, yellows and reds are hotspots where wildfires are actively burning.

Many spots in the region woke to a strong smell of smoke and reduced visibility. The smoky skies dropped the visibility below three miles at times through the morning hours before gradually improving as the air mixed more deeply and diluted the smoke. The smoke did cause many people to experience respiratory issues.


Pictures taken shortly after sunrise from Lubbock on Tuesday (March 7, 2017).

The one upside to the smoky skies were the brilliant sunrises (and sunsets) that they provided.