DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 17, 2023
SMOKE: United States, Northeastern Alaska, Canada, Northern Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean... The ongoing wildfire activity across eastern Alaska, western Canada, the Pacific Northwest and northern California was continuing to add to the large area of smoke that extends over a vast majority of North America, portions of the eastern Pacific and portions of the North Atlantic. The highest density smoke within this large area was roughly covering a large area from portions of western Canada extending east and southeast through central Canada and into the Northern Plains and Northern Rockies of the United States. Moderate density smoke was also seen over northern Canada and extending east and northeast through the Arctic Circle and into northeastern portions of Canada and southern Greenland. DUST: Tropical Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Central America…. An large area of Saharan dust was seen extending across the entire Tropical Atlantic Ocean through all of the Caribbean and Southwestern Atlantic Islands and into portions of Central America to near portions of southern Florida and the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. Hanna 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