Saturday, February 10, 2018

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0400Z February 11, 2018

SMOKE:
Other than what was noted this morning, very little in the way of
significant smoke was seen in satellite imagery during the day in part due
to widespread cloud cover over a sizable percentage of the country. The
most significant smoke plume seen which was of moderate to locally thick
density originated from a fire in Cochise County of southeastern Arizona
and moved quickly off to the northeast reaching southwestern New Mexico.

DUST:
Southwestern US...
Blowing dust emanating from multiple source regions across Nevada
and western Utah was visible spreading to the south. Some of the dust
originating over east central Nevada and northwestern and western Utah
was moderately dense to locally thick. Farther to the southeast, a bit
of thin density blowing dust was seen moving to the northeast of White
Sands in south central New Mexico. It is likely that more blowing dust
was occurring over far southern California, Arizona, and other parts of
New Mexico given the gusty winds noted, but cloudiness moving over the
area interfered with additional dust detection from satellite imagery.

JS

Earlier This Morning...
SMOKE:
Southern Florida...
Smoke plumes were visible over southern Florida emanating from fires
throughout the agricultural areas near and south of Lake Okeechobee. These
smoke plumes were moving off toward the northwest over Lake Okeechobee.

South Dakota...
Throughout the state of South Dakota, four smoke plumes were seen moving
from west to east.

BLOWING DUST:
Northwestern Nevada...
Dust was observed being lifted from northwestern Nevada's Black Rock
Desert north of Pyramid Lake. That dust was being transported towards
the south-southwest on north-northeasterly winds.

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

 


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.