Friday September 22, 2006

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z September 23, 2006

California:
The smoke plume from the fire which blew up overnight in Yolo County of
north central California and quickly moved all the way down the Sacramento
Valley and the San Joaquin Valley was no longer visible although a general
haze was present across the entire valley region which certainly could
contain remnant smoke not only from this fire but from other fires burning
in California. The Napa County fire continues to emit smoke mostly of the
moderately dense variety. This smoke fanned out as it spread southwestward
across portions of the San Francisco region and well offshore. Late this
afternoon relatively small smoke plumes were observed developing with
fires over Contra Costa and San Joaquin Counties which were moving in
a southerly or south-southwesterly direction. Once again, smoke plumes
were noted with the fires over southwestern Siskiyou County and northern
Trinity County of northwestern California. A significant increase in
the amount of smoke produced especially by the Trinity County fires was
noted with visible imagery showing very thick smoke moving westward
across Humboldt County and offshore. The smoke plume then thins out
somewhat well offshore and also moves more in a southerly direction. The
Siskiyou County fire was responsible for a moderately dense to locally
dense smoke plume which moved to the west across the northern portion
of Humboldt County and offshore. Finally, the very large Ventura County
fires are still burning with erratic winds in the vicinity of the fires
blowing the smoke in a variety of directions. Currently as of 0200Z,
the thickest smoke appeared to be over much of Ventura County as well as
portions of Los Angles County. Some of the smoke was also beginning to
move to the northwest into Santa Barbara County. Somewhat thinner smoke
was also seen moving quickly to the southeast across the interior desert
region of southern California.

Baja/Northern Mexico/Arizona/New Mexico/Texas/Oklahoma:
A rather complicated mixture of long range transport of smoke and blowing
dust exists in this region. Certainly believe that smoke is present at
least across portions of central and southern Arizona as well as Baja
and northern Mexico primarily from the Ventura County fire of southern
California. However, satellite imagery also indicated point sources of
blowing dust mainly in the northwestern portion of the Mexican state of
Sonora in NW Mexico. The blowing dust was moving to the northeast into
south central Arizona, adding to the mixture of pollutants there. Earlier
analyzed smoke (this morning) from the Ventura County fire had stretched
east as far as southern New Mexico and far western Texas. Early evening
visible imagery does show a region with a hazy appearance extending from
southwestern and western Texas northeastward into central Oklahoma. It
is certainly possible that some residual smoke may be mixed in. However,
also see some point sources of blowing dust which appear to originate
in western and southwestern Texas so the area of haze is believed to
be a mixture of residual smoke and blowing dust with the latter likely
contributing more. Finally, another area of haze mixed with blowing dust
has spread westward and northward from the region of Mexico just south
of Brownsville, Texas across much of southern Texas reaching as far to
the northwest as San Antonio. In this case, smoke is not believed to be
much if any part of the mixture.

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.