Cloud Base Heights on the West Coast

Last Friday, one of the C&V sectors of the day was the West Coast. The Cloud Base Height product was examine for its usability in that region. As previously mentioned, the product struggles in areas of multiple cloud layers, but has been noted to do well with only single layer clouds.
In this particular case, the usual low stratus deck had been affecting San Francisco as is often the case. However, by 1945 UTC the ceilings began to burn off. Note the higher ceilings in the cyan along the coast, which much lower ceilings (dark blue and maroon) further offshore.

August 19th 1945 UTC Cloud Base Heights and visible imagery

Note also the southern San Joaquin Valley. The Cedar fire is currently burning north of Bakersfield and on this afternoon the thicker smoke was quite visible on the Cloud Base Height product. Thinner smoke further north was not detected, but the smoke from the main fire was clear. According to the product, the base of the smoke in the valley was below 500 feet at times. Observations in this area to confirm are a little more sparse, however further north at Lemoore Naval Air Station (out of the main plume) they were reporting some smoke at higher levels.