Sunday, December 3, 2006

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

 


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.