Tuesday, October 6, 2020

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0030Z October 7, 2020

SMOKE:
Western CONUS/Pacific Ocean...
Wildfires across the western CONUS continue to produce copious amounts
of smoke. The smoke from the California wildfires covers an area from
west of the remnant low of tropical cyclone Maria to Utah ans southern
Idaho. The thickest smoke blankets areas closest to the source, northern
and central California, western and northern Nevada, southern Oregon,
and southwestern Idaho. PyroCBs were observed coming off the SQF Complex
in Sequoia National Forest moving north, as well as from the August and
Red Salmon Complexes in northern California moving north-northeast. Te
East Fork Fire in Utah and the Cow Canyon Fire along the AZ/NM border
were both also producing thick smoke this afternoon.

Front Range/Great Plains/MS & Ohio Valley/Great Lakes/NE CONUS/Eastern
Canada…
Wildfire activity along the Wyoming/Colorado Border was helping to produce
a fairly large area of thin to moderate density smoke this afternoon. The
thickest smoke was emanating from the parent fire activity as well as
concentrating over Texas and Oklahoma. The moderate density remnant
smoke extended from the Central Plains into the Ozarks, the Ohio Valley,
and the St. Lawrence River valley in southern Quebec. This area of smoke
was moving eastward . Some smoke from the wildfires across the western
CONUS may also be contributing to this layer of smoke.

Southeast CONUS/Mississippi Valley…
Many mainly light, with a few moderate, small agricultural burning smoke
plumes were observed from southeastern Missouri into Louisiana and the
Carolinas. Most smoke south of 35N is moving off toward the west or
southwest, while smoke north of 35N is moving off to the north-northeast
and then the northeast. Some of the smoke plumes in northeast Arkansas
and southeast Missouri nearly coalesced by sundown into one small layer
of smoke.

DUST:
Saharan dust was seen this afternoon over the eastern subtropical
Atlantic. It was moving west from the African coast until interacting with
a wave over the central Atlantic that was forcing the dust northwestward.

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/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
GIS:    ftp://satpsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/FIRE/HMS/GIS/
KML:    http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/fire.kml (fire)
        http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/smoke.kml (smoke)

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.