DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z November 19, 2005
Southern California/Baja Mexico: A huge fire fueled by Santa Ana winds continues to burn in the School Canyon area of southern Ventura County, CA. The enormous rather thick smoke plume emitted by this fire extends westward over the Pacific, moving over Santa Barbara and Point Conception in the process. The smoke area then curves northward paralleling the CA coast and even has turned a bit to the northeast which is sending it in the general direction of spots such as Monterey Bay, San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties, and possibly the San Jose metropolitan area. Several large fires burning across northwestern Baja California, Mexico are producing dense smoke plumes which are generally moving westward and over the Pacific Ocean. As the smoke moves westward it also fans out which has brought the northern edge of it across the border into southern San Diego County. Arizona/New Mexico: Several of the same fires that were burning last night are still active across AZ/NM. At least 3 smoke producing fires were located over southern Coconino and eastern Yavapai counties of central AZ. The fire northeast of Payson, AZ in the Coconino National Forest of southern Coconino County is emitting a narrow but locally dense smoke plume which is moving to the southwest into NW Gila and NE Maricopa Counties. It is possible that the leading edge of this smoke may approach the northeastern portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area overnight. At least 2 fires over east central Apache County of northeastern AZ near the New Mexico border are responsible for a decent sized batch of smoke which is fanning out as it moves off to the southeast. Over New Mexico, a fire burning in the hills around 20-25 miles to the west of Los Alamos is still producing smoke, though not as much as yesterday. The rather small smoke plume is moving in a southeasterly direction. Finally, a possible small area of blowing dust was visible for a short time late this afternoon over Hidalgo County of far SW New Mexico. The possible dust cloud was moving southward toward the Mexico border. Oklahoma: A cluster of fires mainly across Hughes, Mcintosh, and Muskogee Counties of east central OK were producing smoke plumes which had combined to form a general patch of smoke that had moved off to the northeast. Southern Plains/Lower Mississippi Valley/Southeast/Middle Atlantic Region: Quite a few fires were detected scattered across the entire region stretching from Texas to Virginia to Florida, with a number of these having visible smoke plumes. The most concentrated batch of fires appeared to be across southern Louisiana. Smoke from these fires moved south during the afternoon toward the Gulf of Mexico. A fire around the Virginia Beach region of southeastern VA was responsible for a smoke plume which had moved southeastward along the northern Outer Banks of NC. A hot spot was still detected in GOES Channel 2 data as of 02Z with a single fire over southern Davidson County of central NC. This fire earlier in the day was emitting smoke which was moving in a southward direction. JS