DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0230Z October 5, 2009
Southwestern U.S. Some thin smoke from the “Sheep Fire”, located near the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, was still visible late this afternoon moving in a northeasterly direction over southern Nevada and western Arizona. Elsewhere, a number of areas of blowing dust were visible across portions of southern California, Arizona, and northwestern Baja. These areas of blowing dust were generally moving to the northeast. One of the more prominent streaks of at least moderately dense to locally dense blowing dust originated from a dry lake bed in northwestern San Bernardino County of southern California and spread into southern Nevada by sunset. Another significant batch of blowing dust originated in northwestern Baja and moved into southwestern Arizona. Other sources of blowing dust included extreme southeastern California, south central Arizona(just southeast of Phoenix), and northeastern Arizona. JS More information on the areas of smoke described above as well as others can be found at the locations listed below. THE FORMAT OF THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS BEING MODIFIED. IT WILL NO LONGER DESCRIBE THE VARIOUS PLUMES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES. THESE PLUMES ARE DEPICTED IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/land/hms.html GIS: http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm KML: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/kml.html THIS TEXT PRODUCT WILL CONTINUE TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE WHICH HAVE BECOME DETACHED FROM AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. IT WILL ALSO STILL INCLUDE DESCRIPTIONS OF BLOWING DUST. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THESE CHANGES OR THE SMOKE TEXT PRODUCT IN GENERAL SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov