DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z OCTOBER 22, 2007
Southern California and Baja California: Wildfires exploded today over southwest California during Santa Ana conditions and have produced a widespread area of smoke. Fires developed and spread rapidly in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, southwest San Bernardino, western Riverside and San Diego counties and also across the border in northern Baja. The smoke was all moving rapidly to the west and southwest and by sunset had reached about 250 nmi into the Pacific west of San Diego. The fires that were producing the thickest smoke were along the Ventura/Los Angeles border near Pyramid Lake, in western Los Angeles county just north of Castaic Lake, central San Diego county near Santa Ysabel and along the southern San Diego border near Tecate. Additionally, another fire erupted in Orange county near Orange just around sunset which has precluded visual smoke detection. However, it is likely that a thick smoke plume was also being produced by this fire that was then spreading across the southern Los Angeles metro area. A fire in central Mariposa county had a plume of light smoke that was drifting within about 15 km of the fire. Arizona: A fire in northern Coconino county on the north rim of the Grand Canyon was producing a narrow plume of light to moderately dense smoke that was drifting to the south to the south of the Canyon. A fire in southeast Coconino county near the Blue Ridge Reservoir was producing a narrow plume of light smoke that extended to the southwest across northwest Gila county. Gulf Coast States: Several fires across the region were producing narrow and mainly short plumes of thin smoke that were generally drifting to the northwest. The most notable of these were in Cherokee county Alabama, Leake county Mississippi and Catahoula parish Louisiana. Saskatchewan: Numerous narrow, short smoke plumes of light smoke were seen from amongst the large number of agricultural fires in southeast Saskatchewan. These plumes were drifting to the southeast. Blowing Dust: Several areas of blowing dust were noted across the Southwest. A large area of dust was emanating from the region around the Salton Sea in southern California and blowing south into the Gulf of California. By sunset, this area of blowing dust covered the northern three-fourths of the Gulf of California. Areas of blowing dust were also originating from the west coast of Baja California. This area of dust was moving southwest into the Pacific Ocean and also mixing with smoke from the fires. An area of blowing dust was being generated from White Sands New Mexico and moving south across El Paso Texas and into northern Mexico. Another area of blowing dust was seen originating in west Texas near Midland and moving to the east-northeast. Ruminski