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