DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0250Z September 19, 2021
SMOKE: Continental U.S./Mexico/Canada... A large plume originating primarily from wildfires over northern California and southwestern Oregon and from agricultural fires in the Mississippi Valley was detected covering the majority of the northwestern, northern, and northeastern U.S. and Great Plains in predominantly lighter density smoke, whereas a sizable area of moderate to heavy density smoke extends from the southern San Joaquin Valley in California to western Nevada and into central Idaho and Montana, reaching parts of the western Dakotas. The large plume extends farther toward the north covering a large part of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and towards the south occupying much of the Great Plains. An area of light density smoke was observed over Baja California and parts of northwestern Mexico. The individual wildfire plumes in California and Oregon are dispersing toward the northeast while the larger area of smoke along the northern and northeastern U.S. was moving predominantly toward the east. The smoke over the Great Plains Baja California showed little movement. Atlantic... Detached areas of light density smoke attributed to the ongoing wildfire activity over the Western U.S. and agricultural fires along the Mississippi Valley were found stretching for several hundred miles across the northwestern Atlantic moving eastward. A second plume of similar light density smoke was observed over the Atlantic waters east of the Florida peninsula and north of Cuba. DUST: Caribbean... Light Saharan dust was observed moving westward across the western part of the Caribbean Sea. Konon 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