DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z October 2, 2021
SMOKE: California/Arizona/Nevada/Northwestern Mexico/Eastern Pacific off the California and Baja coast… Smoke associated with at least 2 large fire complexes in the southern Sierras of east central California was seen across central and southern California, a portion of both southwestern and southern Nevada and Arizona, northwestern Mexico including Baja, and a portion of the far eastern Pacific off the California and Baja coast. It is not known how far out over the eastern Pacific the smoke exists due to extensive cloud cover. Within this larger area of thinner density smoke was a patch of moderate to thick density smoke located closer to the larger wildfires in the southern Sierras and in the nearby valley regions. Central U.S… A broad area of thin density smoke attributed mainly to the wildfires in California though some contribution from fires in south central Canada may also be occurring particularly over the northern part of the area, was present roughly from eastern Montana and the Dakotas southward to portions of New Mexico and Texas. Cloud cover farther east prevented smoke identification in satellite imagery. South Central Canada… At least one large wildfire in east central Saskatchewan was responsible for a sizable area of thick density smoke which impacted southeastern Saskatchewan and a good portion of Manitoba with thinner density smoke extending farther to the northeast likely reaching western Hudson Bay and to the south likely extending into eastern Montana and the Dakotas. Other recent seasonal/agricultural fire activity also occurring in south central Canada may also be contributing some to the thinner density smoke in this region. Eastern U.S./Southeastern Canada/Atlantic off the U.S. East Coast… Areas of thin density leftover smoke likely leftover primarily from the California wildfires with some possible contribution from seasonal/agricultural daily fire activity in the Southeastern U.S. was seen over portions of the eastern U.S., southeastern Canada, and the far western Atlantic off the U.S. east coast. Northeastern Canada/North Atlantic… A swath of leftover thin density smoke believed to be either from the wildfires in the western U.S. or in south central Canada was seen this morning extending from northern Quebec eastward over the Labrador Sea and the northern Atlantic south and east of Greenland. DUST: Eastern and Central Atlantic Ocean... A large area of Saharan dust was seen moving slowly to the west over the central and eastern Atlantic Ocean and appeared to have spread over the eastern Caribbean islands and Puerto Rico this morning. 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