Sunday, October 4, 2009

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

 


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.