Thursday, September 9, 2021

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

SMOKE:
Lower 48 of the U.S/Far Eastern Pacific off the U.S. West
Coast/Southwestern and South Central Canada/Extreme Southeastern
Canada/Atlantic off the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada…
Significant wildfires continue to burn in the western U.S. with a
few smaller wildfires in southern British Columbia of southwestern
Canada. This has resulted in substantial smoke production with a huge mass
of varying density smoke seen in satellite imagery stretching from just
off the U.S. west coast inland and to the east over the entire western
and central U.S., along with a good portion of southwestern and south
central Canada. Within this mass of smoke were large areas of thick smoke
which blanketed sizable portions of the northwestern and central U.S.,
and south central Canada. Farther to the east, a band of thin to moderate
density smoke along a frontal boundary stretched from Louisiana to the
northeast to the central Appalachians. The thinner density smoke from
the western U.S. and southern British Columbia wildfires may also extend
farther to the northeast over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast but cloud
cover interfered with detection. Enough breaks in the clouds allowed
for thinner density smoke to be seen across portions of the central and
northern Atlantic all the way to near western Europe.

DUST:
Caribbean Region/Bahamas/Southern Florida/Eastern Gulf of Mexico…
Thin Saharan dust was seen spreading slowly to the west across Puerto Rico
and the eastern Caribbean region including the islands of the far eastern
Caribbean. More significant Saharan dust was noted over western Africa and
extending to the west over the tropical and subtropical Atlantic. Remnant
thin density Saharan dust was becoming less discernible in satellite
imagery over Hispaniola, Cuba, the Bahamas, the northwestern Caribbean,
the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and southern Florida.

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.