DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z October 21, 2017
SMOKE: South Eastern US... Fires from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Florida Panhandle to Virginia were seen emitting mainly light smoke plumes. These smoke plumes were moving counter-clockwise around a high pressure center located over the southern Appalachians. Of note is the cloud mass over western Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and eastern Texas today. This cloud cover is almost surely obstructing the view of agricultural fires and smoke plumes in these areas, mostly Louisiana and Arkansas. Northern Great Plains... A dozen or so of the agricultural burns across much of southeastern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, northern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota were seen producing mainly light density smoke. Much of this smoke was being lifted northward, with the exception of the most northern smoke plumes, which were seen moving toward the west. Cloud cover obscured some of the region at times today as well, impacting the smoke analysis. The Olympic Peninsula/Victoria Island... Smoke was likely seen being emitted from fires across Washington State's Olympic Peninsula and Victoria Island. This smoke was being blown off toward the east on fairly fast westerly winds. More smoke is likely present throughout interior British Columbia and the coastal Pacific Northwest. However, the presence of cloud cover hampers the analysis of smoke in this area DUST: Imperial Valley... An impressive dust storm was observed moving eastward across the Imperial Valley in south-central California. This blowing dust made its way into southwestern Arizona as well. Mojave Desert... More blowing dust was observed in some of the valleys of the Mojave Desert in southern California. This dust was seen moving northeast towards the Nevada state line. Caribbean Sean/Atlantic Ocean... Saharan dust was observed across much of the Tropical North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, the southern Bahamas, and central North Atlantic. Much of this dust appeared to be dragged northeast by a front draped over the central Atlantic Ocean, while the rest was moving toward the western Caribbean Sea. -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