DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0204Z August 16, 2023
SMOKE: United States/Alaska/Canada/Mexico Atlantic Ocean... An exceptionally large area of smoke, emanating from the large wildfires occurring mainly in northeastern and west-central British Columbia, northern Alberta, south-central Northwest Territories, and west-central Quebec, continues to impact significant portions of Canada, the United States, northern Mexico, and extending off the east coast of the United States and into the North Atlantic Ocean. Moderate and thick density smoke blanketed a sizable part of western, south-central Canada. The fires in Quebec also produced moderate and thick density smoke moving northeast over Newfoundland and Labrador. Oregon/Pacific Ocean... A large area of moderate to thick density smoke from the Bedrock wildfire in west central Oregon was seen engulfing most of western Oregon and extending into the Pacific Ocean. The moderate and thick density smoke was mainly expanding in all directions from the fires but most smoke was generally moving more eastward and westward from the fires. Washington... Numerous fires were visible in northern Washington producing moderate to thick density smoke plumes which moved eastward while combining with moderate to thick density smoke from fires in southern British Columbia. DUST: Eastern Caribbean Region and the Atlantic Ocean... A large area of Saharan dust continues to move across the Tropical Atlantic Ocean and has entered into the eastern Caribbean Islands and portions of the eastern Caribbean Sea. 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