DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z October 18, 2017
SMOKE South-Central Oregon/California: Plumes of thin to moderately dense smoke were visible over portions of northern coastal California and south-central Oregon associated with ongoing wildfire activity. Cloudiness across central California obscured any smoke plume associated with wildfires between San Francisco Bay and Sequoia National Park or any smoke plume that may have extended southward into this region. These smoke plumes were generally moving eastward with some erratic motion due to terrain flow. Four Corners region... Wildfires throughout southern Utah, northern and eastern Arizona and northern New Mexico were seen producing thin density smoke plumes. The smoke from these wildfires was generally moving to the northeast. However, the smoke plume in New Mexico was moving in a more east-southeasterly direction. Southeastern CONUS... Small, mostly agricultural burns from Texas to Georgia were emitting thin density smoke plumes. Many of these smoke plumes were moving to the west-southwest or southwest, with one in western Kansas moving to the north then northwest and another over eastern Oklahoma moving north. South-Central Canada/Northern Plains... Two fast moving grassland fires in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan were producing thin to moderate density smoke that extended east-northeast from the source region into south-central Saskatchewan. Other smaller fires throughout eastern Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan were producing small, thin density smoke plumes. Pacific Northwest/British Columbia... Wildfire activity has been analyzed throughout much of British Columbia, Washington, northern Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana. However, solid to broken cloud cover has obscured all smoke that may exist throughout the region. Even so, this region is included due to the sheer number of thermal anomalies detected, which would almost certainly imply at least some smoke in portions of the area. DUST Southern Saskatchewan... Blowing dust was observed emanating from three lake beds: Bitter Lake, Big Muddy Lake, and West Coteau Lake. Although smoke has been observed around this region, the high albedo of these lake beds as dust source regions and the high west-southwesterly winds suggested by nearby smoke plumes lends to the analysis of blowing dust. Atlantic Ocean east of the Caribbean Islands... Saharan dust was seen across the Atlantic Ocean east and northeast of the Caribbean Islands. This Saharn dust layer appeared to be drifting off to the west. -Hosley 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