DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z September 5, 2021
SMOKE: Lower 48/Southern and Eastern Canada/Eastern Pacific off the U.S. West Coast/Atlantic off the U.S. and Eastern Canada Coast/Northern Gulf of Mexico... The huge mass of smoke of varying density which continues to be attributed to ongoing wildfires burning in the western U.S. and southern British Columbia in southwestern Canada was again seen this morning extending from just off the California and Oregon coast inland over a fairly good portion of the U.S. lower 48, a swath of far southwestern and south central Canada, eastern Canada, and out over portions of the western and northern Atlantic off the U.S. east coast and off the east coast of Canada. Within this large area of smoke were moderately dense to thicker patches, with one of these stretching from far eastern Canada across the Labrador Sea and southern Greenland and over the open northern Atlantic. The second and more significant batch of thicker smoke covered the region stretching from central and eastern Washington, Oregon, and northern and central California eastward over the northern Rockies to the Central U.S. Significant cloud cover over the Ohio Valley and portions of the northeastern U.S. along with a sizable part of central and eastern Canada prevented detection of smoke in satellite imagery which may still be present in this region. DUST: Texas/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean Region... Leftover mainly thin density Saharan dust was still visible over portions of southeastern Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, and across the Florida Keys and Florida Straits to the Bahamas though it is becoming less discernible in satellite imagery and is likely mixed with thinner density smoke from the western U.S. wildfires and other atmospheric aerosols/pollutants. Another batch of Saharan dust which was seen over eastern Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the central and eastern Caribbean region, and extending over the open Atlantic on the periphery of Hurricane Larry. 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