DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2300Z January 18, 2014
California: Clouds moving in from the west are obscuring the view of smoke coming from the Colby wildfire and any residual smoke seen over the Pacific from this morning. An area of light to moderately dense smoke from the Soda wildfire can be seen moving NNW up/along the eastern side of the San Joaquin Valley. J Kibler Earlier Today: California: The Colby wildfire continued to burn overnight and this morning producing a small area of thin smoke that was drifting westward out over the Pacific Ocean. Gulf of Mexico: An area of aerosol that is believed to be mostly composed of elevated dust particles is seen over the northwestern to south central/southeast Gulf of Mexico. Much of the aerosol is concentrated along or near a cold front that has pushed south across the Gulf. An area of blowing dust was observed moving southeast across the central US on the evening of January 16th, which is likely where this elevated dust came from. There may also be some small amount of remnant thin smoke from Gulf Coast fires that is mixed in and drifting over the far northwestern Gulf. Sheffler THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE..TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE 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 ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov