DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0130Z August 20, 2023
SMOKE: United States/Canada/Northern Mexico/Atlantic Ocean/Eastern Pacific Ocean... Widespread cloud cover continued across portions of Alaska and northwestern Canada which also limited on some of the recent wildfires and smoke impacting those regions. Numerous wildfires were still seen over a portion of the Northwest Territories, northern Alberta, and scattered across British Columbia in Canada. Also wildfires continued to burn in parts of Washington, Idaho, western Montana, western Oregon, and northwestern California. For the smoke, western Canadian wildfires and northwestern U.S. wildfires were responsible for a very large area of moderate to thick density smoke which was seem from off the west coast of California/Oregon/Washington through the Pacific Northwest across the northern US and into the Great Lakes region then south through the Ohio Valley, Mississippi Valley, southeast, Mid Atlantic US and back into the Southern and Central Plains. In Canada the smoke extended from off the Pacific coast through most of western and central Canada and into parts of eastern Canada. The larger surrounding area of thinner density smoke was seen over much of Canada and the U.S., northern Mexico, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and a relatively small part of the far eastern Pacific off the U.S. west coast and portions of the western and northern Atlantic. From Earlier Today: DUST: Southern Gulf of Mexico/Central America/Yucatan Peninsula/Southern Florida/Bahamas/Caribbean Region/Atlantic Ocean… A sprawling area of generally thin density Saharan dust was visible this morning extending from the Bay of Campeche, the Yucatan Peninsula, and some of Central America to the east and northeast over virtually all of the Caribbean region, the southern Gulf of Mexico, southern Florida, and the Bahamas. A thicker area was seen to the north of the Caribbean region and east of the Bahamas along and ahead of a frontal boundary over the western Atlantic. JK 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