Tuesday, October 25, 2005

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z October 26, 2005

Southern and Southeastern US:
A concentrated batch of fires across southern and eastern Arkansas
was producing numerous smoke plumes which were moving in a SSE
direction. Other scattered smoke producing fires were detected across
the region stretching from the Florida panhandle westward to southeastern
Texas. All smoke was moving generally in a SE or SSE direction. Some of
the fires closer to the Gulf coast were responsible for smoke plumes
that extended out over the Gulf of Mexico more than 100 miles from
their source.

South Dakota:
Several fires in the Black Hills region of western SD were producing
locally thick smoke plumes which were moving southeastward. Smoke from
these fires was still confined to western South Dakota prior to sunset.

North Dakota/Southern Canada:
An amazing number of agricultural burns were detected across North Dakota
and the southern portions of Saskatchewan and Manitoba Provinces of
southern Canada. Smoke from only a few of these fires though was detected
in GOES visible imagery late this afternoon and evening. Movement of the
smoke varied greatly across the region due to changes in wind direction.

Western US:
Cloudiness ahead of an approaching frontal system quickly moved into
Washington, Oregon, and the northern half of California which limited
the ability to detect smoke. Before the clouds had moved in quite a
few fires were still detected across the region. These fires are likely
still producing smoke, just as they were last evening, but clouds are
preventing detection. Before the clouds moved in, some smoke was noted
from a concentrated area of fires over northeastern Oregon, the Idaho
panhandle, and eastern Washington. The smoke was moving mostly in a
northward direction. In addition, an area of detached smoke, likely
leftover from all of the fires detected yesterday across California and
Oregon was seen moving northward across eastern Washington into British
Columbia Province of southwestern Canada.

JS

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.