DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z October 3, 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. Within this larger area of thinner density smoke was an area of moderate to thick density smoke located closer to the larger fires in the southern Sierras. Central U.S… A broad area of thin density smoke attributed mainly to the western United States fires 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 the Northern Plains extending south to the Southern Plains states of Texas and eastern New Mexico. South Central Canada… At least one large wildfire in east central Saskatchewan was responsible for a sizable area of high density smoke which extended from southeastern Saskatchewan and a good portion of Manitoba into portions of North Dakota. Thinner density smoke extended farther to the northeast extending into northern Canada. 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 coastal locations of New England southwest to North Carolina and then extending to the offshore western Atlantic Ocean. 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 the northern Atlantic Ocean extending west into northern Quebec. 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. Hanna 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