Wednesday, December 13, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z December 14, 2007

Florida:
At least nine smoke plumes were visible in satellite imagery during the
afternoon across portions of Florida. Among the more noteworthy was a
moderately dense to locally dense smoke plume moving to the northeast
from a fire in southwestern Bay County in the Florida panhandle. Farther
to the southeast, a thin but very long smoke plume was detected moving to
the northeast and offshore from a fire in Orange County of east central
Florida to the east of Orlando. The smoke plume extended nearly 115
miles to the northeast of the source.

California:
A puff of mainly thin smoke moved quickly to the south and fanned out
from a fire located just southeast of the Salton Sea in Imperial County
of southern California.  Quite a few fires were detected in or near the
northern and central Sierra Nevada Range of northeastern and east central
California.  However, only one thin smoke plume was visible in GOES-West
imagery moving to the south from a fire in south central El Dorado County.
More smoke plumes were likely associated with these fires, but due to the
continued absence of GOES-12 imagery, smoke detection in the Western US
(especially during the afternoon hours) has been hindered.

Oregon:
A thin to moderately dense smoke plume was visible moving to the
south-southwest and offshore from a fire in southwestern Curry County
in southwestern Oregon.

Hawaii:
A possible smoke plume due to lava flows from the Kilauea Volcano
encountering vegetation was visible moving mainly to the west along
the southern coast of the big island of Hawaii.  The possible smoke
plume appeared to lift a bit more to the north during the afternoon and
mixed with the usual volcanic steam/fog in the region around the volcano
and offshore.

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.