Wednesday, September 7, 2016

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

 


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.