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