Saturday, October 2, 2021

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

 


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.