Saturday, October 2, 2021

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

 


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.