DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z August 21, 2016

SMOKE:
California/US Southwest/Southern Plains:
An expansive area of light density remnant smoke spread westward off
the coast of California and expands throughout California, northwest
Nevada, southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, northern Texas, Oklahoma
and western Kansas. Embedded areas of moderate remnant smoke were seen
in southern Nevada into southern California and another area off the
coast of southern California.  This residual smoke originated from
wildfires in the western US and can be seen in-between cloud cover in
the US Southwest. Multiple light to heavy density smoke plumes were seen
fanning to the north in southern California, while additional light to
heavy density smoke plumes traveling to the southeast in Nevada, and Utah.

Pacific Northwest:
An area of light density remnant smoke from wildfires was seen across
the Pacific Northwest moving eastwards. Numerous light to heavy density
smoke plumes were seen throughout the Pacific Northwest moving eastwards.

DUST:
Caribbean Sea:
A large diffuse area of Saharan dust was seen moving west across the
Caribbean Sea into the Yucatan Peninsula.

Arizona:
A northwest to southeast oriented outflow boundary produced from
convection in Arizona was moving towards the southwest in central Arizona.
Blowing dust and sand resulted along this outflow boundary which spanned
from the west-central border of Arizona to southeastern Arizona.

-Cronin

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

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.