DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z September 8, 2016
SMOKE: California: The Gap Fire in far northern California continues to emit light to heavy density smoke which spread to the south and west offshore. Farther to the south, light to heavy density smoke could be seen emanating from the ongoing Soberanes Fire in Monterey County near the coast and was fanning smoke to the east. Light density remnant smoke could be seen throughout Central Valley California banked along the Sierra Nevada mountains. The majority of this remnant smoke likely originated from both of the aforementioned fires. Lower Mississippi River Valley: Multiple agricultural and prescribed burns produced smoke plumes in the Lower Mississippi River Valley which amalgamated into a small area of light density smoke spanning from northeast Louisiana to southern Illinois. This area of smoke was traveling to the northeast. DUST: Texas/Southwestern Gulf of Mexico/Yucatan/Caribbean/Cuba: A large area of Saharan dust was primarily moving west except for Texas where it was traveling north then northeast. This area covered from Texas/eastern Mexico across the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Campeche and the Yucatan Peninsula as well as Cuba and the Caribbean. -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