Wednesday, October 03, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z October 04, 2007

Kentucky:
Satellite data during the morning indicated fires still present across
eastern Kentucky but widespread cloudiness during most of the day
prevented much in the way of smoke detection from visible satellite
imagery.

Southeastern US/Mississippi/Arkansas/Louisiana/Texas:
Cloudiness across central and eastern Mississippi and the remainder of the
Southeast to South Carolina and Georgia prevented any smoke detection in
satellite imagery. Farther to the west, a significant number of fires were
detected across eastern Mississippi, southeastern Arkansas, Louisiana,
and southeastern Texas. More than 2 dozen of these fires were producing
visible smoke plumes with the majority of the thin to locally moderately
dense plumes moving in a southwesterly direction. A fire in southeastern
Starr County of far southern Texas was producing a moderately dense smoke
plume which fanned out to the east and west as it spread southwestward
across the Rio Grande River. Farther to the northwest, a cluster of
fires primarily in Castro and Lamb Counties of the northwestern Texas
panhandle were emitting bursts of thin to moderately dense smoke at
times which later consolidated into a larger batch of smoke which moved
to the north-northeast across Amarillo during the late afternoon.

Kansas:
Fires scattered from southwestern to central and north central Kansas
produced mostly short duration puffs of thin to moderately dense smoke
which spread very rapidly off to the north, covering large distances
during the afternoon and early evening.

South Central Canada/North Dakota:
Many fires were detected in satellite imagery through breaks in the clouds
over North Dakota and the southern portions of the Canadian provinces
of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but very little smoke information could
be obtained in satellite imagery due to the presence of cloudiness. A
few smoke plumes could be seen moving to the northeast from fires in
northeastern and southeastern North Dakota.

Colorado:
Late in the afternoon a narrow smoke plume was observed moving to the
northeast from a fire in eastern Park County of central Colorado. The
smoke plume passed less than 25 miles to the south of the Denver metro
area.

New Mexico:
A fire in southern Lincoln County of south central New Mexico produced
a thin to perhaps locally moderately dense smoke plume which moved to
the east nearly reaching the TX-NM border.

Utah:
Fires in northeastern Washington County and southwestern Garfield County
of southwestern Utah were responsible for thin to moderately dense smoke
plumes which combined as they moved off to the northeast.

California:
A cluster of fires again in the Sacramento Valley to the north of
Sacramento produced rather brief puffs of thin to moderately dense
smoke which primarily moved to the north but also fanned out a bit to
the east and west in the process. A fire in southern Sonoma County just
north of San Pablo Bay produced a burst of moderately dense smoke which
moved quickly to the east then northeast over Sacramento and into the
Sacramento Valley.

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.