DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z December 27, 2015
SMOKE Southern California: A brush fire in Ventura County started late Friday night and it is said to have burned over 1,000 acres. The fire had been producing light to possibly moderately dense smoke which initially spread westward over the Pacific Ocean. However, by later in the afternoon, a change in wind direction resulted in some of the smoke offshore to begin moving back toward the coast and onshore. BLOWING DUST Southern California/Southwestern and Western Arizona/Northwestern Mexico: Strong northerly winds were responsible for an area of blowing dust which began prior to sunrise(1500Z) and continued through the day spreading to the south. The dust originated from a number of source regions over southern and southeastern California, southwestern and western Arizona, and northwestern Mexico including the area just north of the Gulf of California. The surrounding edges of the dust appeared to be thin in density though some embedded moderately dense to even locally dense dust was visible especially moving south over southeastern California, far southwestern Arizona, and far northwestern Mexico and over the northern part of the Gulf of California. Northern Mexico/Southwestern Texas: More streaks of mainly thin to possibly locally moderately dense blowing dust were observed developing from a number of sources in northern Mexico after 20Z and spreading to the northeast. Some of the blowing dust had reached the Texas border around Presidio and Brewster Counties just prior to sunset. Cloudiness over northern Mexico, New Mexico, and portions of western and southwestern Texas likely interfered with additional dust detection in satellite imagery given the strong winds which were occurring over this region. JS 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.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/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