Thursday, October 12, 2023

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0127Z October 13, 2023

SMOKE:
Northwestern and North Central Canada…
Wildfires are still burning in parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and
the southern portion of the Northwest Territories resulting in a large
mass of generally thin density smoke which impacted east central British
Columbia, northern and central Alberta, the southern and eastern portion
of the Northwest Territories, and into northern Nunavut. Locally thicker
smoke was seen closer to some of the wildfire activity especially with
a larger wildfire in east central British Columbia and the clusters of
wildfires in north central Alberta.

Area from the Mid-Mississippi Valley Region to the Mid-Atlantic Region
and Northeast…
An area of mostly thin density smoke attributed in part to long range
transport from the ongoing northwestern Canada wildfires and to recently
daily seasonal fire activity primarily over southeast Missouri and
northeastern Arkansas was visible extending from the Mid-Mississippi
Valley region eastward to the northeastern U.S. and over the Mid-Atlantic
region.

Western Oregon/Western Washington/California…
Numerous scattered fires along the western U.S. coast could be seen
producing mostly light density smoke plumbs which moved generally to the
west. In Oregon and Washington the smoke plumbs were extending over the
coastal Pacific Ocean.

Gulf of Mexico/Bay of Campeche/Eastern Mexico/Far Western
Caribbean/Northern Central America…
Patches of mainly thin density smoke/aerosol were present throughout today
over some of eastern Mexico, the southwestern and south central Gulf of
Mexico, and the Bay of Campeche, along with the far western Caribbean Sea,
and northern Central America. This smoke/aerosol combination is believed
to be due to some seasonal fire activity scattered in parts of eastern
Mexico and northern Central America, emissions from oil rigs in the Bay of
Campeche, and pollutants released from industrial activity in the region.

DUST:
South Central U.S/Northern Mexico…
Thin to moderate density blowing dust was seen kicking up from northern
Mexico and southern New Mexico this evening. This dust was moving
northeast through western and north-central Texas, over western Kansas,
and western Oklahoma.

Eglin


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 map:	https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg
Smoke data:
https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Smoke_Polygons
Fire data:
https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Fire_Points

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.