DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0108Z August 12, 2023
SMOKE: United States/Alaska/Canada... Major widespread wildfire activity continues especially across western and northwestern Canada along with most of Alaska. Another significant cluster of wildfires was present over west central Quebec to the southeast of Hudson Bay. All of these wildfires were primarily responsible for a massive area of smoke which covered much of Canada, most of Alaska, as well as much of the U.S., parts of the western Atlantic, Coastal Pacific, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and northern Mexico. Within the much larger area of thinner density smoke were thicker batches. The largest of these, attributed to the significant number of wildfires in northwestern Canada and Alaska blanketed the northern half of Alaska and much of northern Canada throughout the day. Aerosols and smoke from fires in southern Mexico created an area of moderate smoke in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Cloud cover over much of the western, southwestern, and eastern Canada prevented further smoke analysis in these regions Oregon... Several wildfires were producing moderate to localized thick density smoke within western Oregon. The moderate and dense smoke was observed extending eastward. Hawaii... The several wildfires fires in central Maui and the northwest part of the Big Island are still ongoing however any potential smoke plumes were quickly thinned out due to wind and weather throughout the morning. By the evening the area became partially cloud covered preventing the detection of smoke. DUST: Central and Eastern Caribbean Region/Bahamas/Atlantic Ocean... The thinner density western portion of an area of Saharan dust has edged just a little more to the west over the past day and is present over eastern Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean just east of and now including some of the Bahamas. Dust continues to extend east across the tropical and subtropical Atlantic to the west coast of Africa. 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