DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z December 4, 2006
California/Baja: A large fire in Ventura County of southern California is emitting a huge elongated smoke plume which moved to the west-southwest during the day and well offshore. The smoke appears to be moderately dense to thick within 100 miles of the source. Another significant fire just south of the border of San Diego County and Baja is repsonsible for a large thin to locally moderately dense area of smoke which is also moving in a west-southwest direction and well offshore. Other fires a bit farther to the south in Baja are producing rather large plumes of relatively thin smoke which are combining with blowing dust/sand off the west coast of Baja. Another source of apparent blowing dust was visible moving to the west-southwest from western Riverside County of southern California across north central San Diego County and out over the Pacific. Farther to the north, an area of haze which cannot be attributed to either smoke or blowing dust at this time was visible from the Sacramento Valley extending westward across the San Francisco metro area to well off the coast. A few surface observations indicated restricted visibilities due to haze in this region. Arizona: A fire located just northwest of the town of Yuma in southwestern Yuma County of southwestern Arizona was producing a relatively thin but very long swath of smoke which moved south during the day and out over the Gulf of California. Mainly thin to locally moderately dense smoke plumes were visible moving to the west from 2 fires located in the southern portion of Apache County in east central Arizona. A narrow cloud of blowing dust from a dry lake bed in north central Cochise County of southeastern Arizona was observed moving in a westward direction toward Tucson just prior to sunset. Southern Louisiana/Southeastern Texas: Numerous fires were detected across the southern half of Louisiana during the day which were emitting mainly thin smoke plumes which spread in a southerly direction. A larger fire in southern Jefferson County of southeastern Texas was producing a moderately dense area of smoke which had moved more than 150 miles offshore to the south over the Gulf of Mexico. JS