DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z October 31, 2021
SMOKE:
Central and South Central U.S./Eastern Mexico/Gulf of Mexico…
Morning satellite imagery showed a few swaths of thin density smoke
leftover from yesterday’s agricultural and seasonal fire activity
drifting to the west over southern Louisiana and the nearby Gulf of
Mexico. Farther to the west, a larger area of remnant thin density smoke
from days of agricultural and seasonal fire activity and from at least a
couple of wildfires (including the Buck Fire between Abilene and Wichita
Falls in north central Texas and the Hamilton Fire between Lubbock and
Childress in northwestern Texas) was visible over portions of the central
and south central U.S. from southeastern Kansas to southern Texas and
extending offshore over the western Gulf of Mexico, eastern Mexico, and
the Bay of Campeche. In addition, thin density smoke from oil rig flaring
in the Bay of Campeche was seen moving to the west and southwest over the
southern Bay of Campeche and inland over a portion of southeastern Mexico.
Northwestern U.S./Southwestern Canada…
As was the case yesterday, despite the significant number of relatively
smaller agricultural and seasonal(prescribed and controlled) fires
detected across portions of the northwestern U.S. and southwestern Canada
(mainly British Columbia), no leftover smoke could be seen in satellite
imagery this morning.
Unknown Aerosol:
North Central and Central U.S…
A thin density aerosol was visible early this morning over the north
central U.S. and extending to the south and east over the Middle
Mississippi and Ohio Valley regions. It is possible that at least some of
this aerosol may be composed of leftover smoke from recent agricultural
and seasonal fire activity occurring in the south central U.S. and at
least a couple of wildfires in north central and northwestern Texas.
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