DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z October 6, 2021
SMOKE:
U.S./Canada/Northern Mexico/Gulf of Mexico/Northern Atlantic...
Areas of smoke due primarily to ongoing wildfires in east central
California, Idaho, western Montana, and eastern Saskatchewan covered
a portion of the western U.S. and much of the central U.S. It was not
known from satellite imagery if any smoke was present farther to the east
over the Ohio Valley region, the Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic region,
and the Northeast due to extensive cloud cover. Cloudiness over the
Northwestern U.S. and portions of the Rockies also limited smoke extent
and density information in satellite imagery. The smoke also stretched
across much of Canada from Alberta to Quebec, the Canadian Maritimes,
and offshore over parts of the north Atlantic. The thicker smoke within
the larger expanse of generally thinner density smoke was located over
east central California and southwestern Nevada in association with the
larger wildfires in the southern Sierras. Other thick smoke was present
over northern Montana near the Canadian border and extending and fanning
out northeast and east of there over eastern Alberta, much of Saskatchewan
and Manitoba, and western Ontario. The western and southwestern part
of this particular batch of thicker smoke was believed to be more from
the wildfires in Idaho and western Montana though some contribution
from the California fires might also be occurring. The portion of the
smoke from eastern Saskatchewan over Manitoba and Ontario is likely
primarily from the larger wildfires in eastern Saskatchewan though some
contribution from the Idaho and western Montana wildfires and even the
southern California wildfires is also possible. The large mass of thinner
density smoke over the Central U.S. and extending down over northern
Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico may be a combination of all of the
aforementioned wildfires. Finally, a patch of moderate to thin density
smoke over southeastern California and western Arizona is due mainly to
a fire burning along the Colorado River bordering California and Arizona.
DUST:
Atlantic…
An area of thin density Saharan dust was still visible mainly to the
east of the Bahamas and to the north of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
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