DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z June 22, 2022
SMOKE: Central and Eastern U.S./South Central and Southeastern Canada/Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic off the Southeast Coast... A huge mass of mainly thin density smoke believed to be mainly from recent and current wildfire activity in the southwestern U.S. with some localized contributions from daily seasonal fire activity in the south central and southeastern U.S. was present this morning covering much of the central and eastern U.S., south central and southeastern Canada, a portion of the Atlantic off the southeast U.S. coast, and much of the Gulf of Mexico. It is likely that smoke from the fires in Alaska and northwestern Canada is also impacting locations in south central and southeastern Canada as well as the northern and northeastern portions of the U.S. Patches of moderate density leftover smoke were visible trapped under an upper level ridge and were seen extending across the south central and southeastern U.S. from central Texas and southeastern Oklahoma to central Tennessee. The smoke over the Atlantic off the southeast U.S. coast and over Florida and the Gulf of Mexico was particularly thin in density and was barely visible in satellite imagery. Southwestern and Central U.S… A stripe of thin to moderate density smoke was seen along the northern periphery of a significant cloud area from south central Utah to extreme southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa. This smoke was likely mainly from the Left Fork wildfire burning in southern Utah. Alaska/Canada/Northern U.S./Atlantic off the East Coast of Canada… A large area of thin density smoke, attributed mainly to wildfires burning in portions of Alaska and northwestern Canada was visible this morning stretching from the Gulf of Alaska and southern Alaska to the northeast over central and eastern Alaska, northern and northeastern Canada, and over the Labrador Sea, southern Greenland, and over a portion of the north Atlantic southeast of Greenland. A branch of the smoke also extended to the southeast over central, south central, and southeastern Canada, and the northern tier of the U.S. from Montana to the Northeast. The smoke over the northern U.S. was likely a combination of smoke from the Alaska and Canada wildfires and recent wildfire activity over the southwestern U.S. Embedded thicker areas of smoke were seen closer to some of the individual wildfire complexes with larger areas over far southern Alaska and the Gulf of Alaska, central and eastern Alaska, and northwestern Canada. Cloud cover over the far northeastern U.S. and over portions of central and eastern Canada prevented detection of any smoke through satellite imagery which might be present there. Mexico/Pacific West of Mexico… Thin density smoke generally from lingering seasonal fire activity in Mexico was seen this morning over roughly the northern half of Mexico and extending to the west over the southern parts of the Gulf of California and Baja, and the nearby Pacific in this region. DUST: Tropical Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico… The thin density Saharan dust which was present over portions of the Caribbean region was no longer visible this morning in satellite imagery. The only Saharan dust seen in satellite imagery was east of the Caribbean region over the tropical and subtropical Atlantic west of Africa. JS 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