Tuesday, June 15, 2021

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 15, 2021

SMOKE:
Portions of the Southwestern, Western, Central, Southeastern, and
Eastern U.S./Southwestern Canada/Far western Atlantic/Northern Gulf of
Mexico/Northern and Northwestern Mexico/Pacific off the west coast of
Mexico and southern California...
The enormous area of thin density smoke attributed primarily to ongoing
wildfires burning mainly in western Mexico, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico,
and a new one in south central Montana was seen this morning stretching
from off the coast of western Mexico and southern California inland across
the Southwestern U.S. and northward from there over the Rocky Mountain
region all the way up into southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan
in southwestern Canada. The smoke also covered much of the Central and
Southeastern U.S. and along and off the Mid-Atlantic coast and coastal
areas of New York and southern New England, as well as the northern Gulf
of Mexico. The band of aerosol across the South Central and Southeastern
U.S. from Texas across the Gulf coast region to the eastern Carolinas
was a bit more concentrated in density though some of this aerosol,
in addition to thinner density smoke, was believed to be composed of
other atmospheric pollutants pooled along a frontal boundary. Portions
of the North Central and Northeast southward into the Ohio Valley region
appeared to be relatively smoke free. Embedded within this large mass
of thin density smoke were areas of thicker density smoke which were
visible over northwestern Mexico including Baja and off the west coast
of Baja. Thicker smoke also extended across much of the Southwestern
U.S. and northward over Utah, western Colorado, and southern Wyoming.

DUST:
Tropical Atlantic Ocean to the Eastern Caribbean Islands...
The western and leading portion of a very large mass of Saharan dust
was seen this morning spreading to the west across Puerto Rico and
Hispaniola. The dust extended well to the east across a good portion of
the tropical and subtropical eastern Atlantic to western Africa. The
earlier area of Saharan dust which was located farther to the west in
the western Caribbean, Bahamas, Gulf of Mexico and eastern Mexico was
no longer visible at least in part due to cloudiness over this region.

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.