Thursday, September 9, 2021

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0123Z September 10, 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.
Earlier today: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. Remnant thin density Saharan dust was becoming
less discernible over Hispaniola, Cuba, the Bahamas, the northwestern
Caribbean, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and southern Florida.

Eglin


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.