DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z September 28, 2020
SMOKE: California/Nevada/Arizona/New Mexico/Northwestern Mexico/Baja California... Major wildfires throughout central and northern California continue to produce thick smoke, even as the sun rose this morning. Thick smoke blanketed northeastern California and areas to the west over the Pacific Ocean. Thick smoke was also observed emanating from the Creek and SQF Complex fires further south (central California) and moving west. Moderate density smoke was observed further out into the Pacific, while light density smoke had moved as far north as Victoria Island and as far south as the southern Mexican Coast (offshore of Guerrero). Ohio Valley/Great Lakes into the North Atlantic... Remnant light density smoke from western wildfires was seen traveling northeastward over the Great Lakes, then east across southern Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, and the open North Atlantic Ocean. This will continue to mover around the northern periphery of a large upper-level ridge over the eastern and central Atlantic. Western Gulf of Mexico… An area of remnant smoke, presumably from the western CONUS wildfire activity, along with additional smoke from gas flaring in the Bay of Campeche and minor fire activity in eastern Mexico, was present over much of the western Gulf of Mexico. The smoke was slowly moving north into a cold front, which was then pushing the smoke back south as well as dragging the northern fringes of the smoke area up to the east-northeast. DUST: Tropical and Subtropical eastern Atlantic… An area of thick Saharan dust was observed emerging off the Mauirtanian and Senegalese coasts and extending westward and west-northwestward to about (28N, 50W). This dust was slowly moving off toward the west and west-northwest. Hosley 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