Saturday, August 15, 2009

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z August 16, 2009

Northern and Central California:
An area of thin smoke remnant smoke covered much of the central valley
this evening and was moving into the Sierra Nevada. This smoke is mainly
from a fire along the Yuba/Nevada county border in northern California.

Southwest US and Northern Mexico:
Broad areas of smoke were seen over much of the Southwest. The smoke is
mainly from the La Brea fire in Santa Barbara county. One area of mainly
thin smoke extends from southeast California across northern Arizona
and into southeast Utah and western Colorado. Another area of thin smoke
was seen over northern Sonora and Chihuahua, southeast Arizona and into
western New Mexico.

There were areas of thicker smoke that were attached to active fires in
California that are depicted in the graphics at the links below.

Great Lakes:
Two areas of light to moderately dense smoke were seen in the Great Lakes
region. One was over much of Lake Michigan and surrounding states. The
other was over much of Lake Erie and northeast Ohio into western New
York and Lake Ontario.

Southwest Gulf of Mexico:
Two surges of smoke from the oil operations in the southern Bay of
Campeche were seen drifting to the west northwest across the southwest
Gulf. The leading edge was moving inland into Veracruz state.

Ruminski

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






 


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.