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