Monday, June 14, 2021

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 14, 2021

SMOKE:
Portions of the Southwestern, Central, and Eastern U.S./Extreme
Southeastern Canada/Gulf of Mexico/Western Atlantic/Northern and
Northwestern Mexico/Pacific off the west coast of Mexico…
The very large area of mainly thin density smoke was still visible this
morning covering much of northern and northwestern Mexico, and across
the U.S. from the Southwest and Rockies eastward to off the Mid-Atlantic
and Northeast coastal regions. The smoke also appeared over the northern
Gulf of Mexico and over Baja and the eastern Pacific to the west and
southwest of Baja. Within this large mass of thinner density smoke were
thicker areas which included portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado,
Utah, and Wyoming. Another relatively thicker batch of smoke was located
over northwestern Mexico, the Gulf of California, Baja, and just west of
Baja. As was the case yesterday, much of the northern and eastern portion
of the huge area of thinner density smoke across the U.S. and off the east
coast and the thicker smoke over the Southwestern U.S. and Rocky Mountain
region was mainly due to larger wildfires burning especially in Arizona,
New Mexico, and Utah. The smoke over Mexico, the Gulf of California,
Baja, and the eastern Pacific was primarily due to the batch of larger
fires in western Mexico. However, some of the smoke from the Mexico
fires was being transported to the north and northeast and may also now
be contributing to some of the smoke especially in the Southwestern U.S.

DUST:
Tropical Atlantic Ocean to the Yucatan Peninsula…
A rather thin area of Saharan dust was seen from the central Caribbean
Sea extending west through the western Caribbean Islands and into Central
America, southeastern Mexico and the southern Gulf of Mexico. The dust
also was visible across portions of the Bahamas and to the north of
the Bahamas. A much larger and thicker area of Saharan dust stretched
from just east of Puerto Rico over much of the tropical and subtropical
Atlantic to the western coast of Africa.

JS

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.