DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 10, 2022
SMOKE: Alaska/Canada/North Central and Northeastern U.S… A very significant amount of wildfire activity continues to be observed across portions of Alaska and northwestern and west central Canada which is responsible for an enormous mass of smoke which blankets most of Alaska with the exception of the far southern tier, most of Canada with the exception of southwestern Canada, and extending off the southeast coast of Canada. The thickest smoke was visible in and around breaks in cloud cover across Alaska and northwestern and north central Canada and extending over the Arctic out of range of geostationary satellite viewing. Thinner density smoke also appeared to spread far enough south to impact portions of the north central and northeastern U.S. where it eventually mixed with downstream smoke from the larger wildfires in California, Nevada, and Utah. Western and Central U.S… The Washburn Fire in east central California in the central Sierra-Nevada Mountains was responsible for an area of thick density smoke extending from the fire to the north and northwest to the west of Lake Tahoe. Thin to moderate density smoke from this fire also extended well to the northeast before thinning out over the north central U.S. Farther to the east, several wildfires were burning in central Utah resulting in a significant plume of varying density smoke which extended well to the northeast with moderate to thick density smoke reaching as far east as the eastern Dakotas. Central and Eastern U.S… Very large coverage of thin density smoke with embedded smaller patches of moderate density smoke covered most of the central U.S. and eastern U.S. Cloud cover over the southeastern U.S. prevented detection of any smoke which might be present there in satellite imagery. Most of this leftover smoke is believed to be from the larger wildfires burning in California, Nevada, and Utah though it is also possible that long range transport of smoke from the significant wildfire activity in northwestern Canada and Alaska may be occurring especially across the north central and northeastern U.S. Mexico/Pacific off the coast of Western Mexico... An area of what is likely a mixture of smoke from seasonal fires in western Mexico and aerosols from industrial sources in Mexico was seen through patchy cloudiness stretching from coastal western Mexico to the west and over a portion of the Gulf of California and southern Baja and over the Pacific to the south of Baja and to the west of the Mexican coastline. DUST: Tropical Atlantic/Far Eastern Caribbean... A huge expanse of Saharan dust was seen from the coast of Africa across the tropical and subtropical Atlantic reaching as far west as the eastern Caribbean to the southeast of Puerto Rico. JS Alaska, Northern, Central and Eastern Canada, Northern and Central Plains extending east through the Midwest and into the Eastern United States... An expansive area of varying density smoke continues to be observed extending from Alaska across most of northern and central Canada into eastern Canada and portions of the Northeastern United States. The smoke also extended south from central Canada into the Northern and Central Plains and then east through the Midwest and into the Eastern United States. Within this area, moderate to high density smoke was seen extending across most of northern Alaska through most of northern Canada and southeast towards northern Ontario and western Quebec. The highest density smoke was seen over northern Alaska, the Northern Yukon and the northern Northwest Territories. Mexico, Western Gulf of Mexico, Southern Plains, Southeastern United States.. An area of light density smoke, from fire activity over the region over the past few days combined with smoke from the Alaskan and western Canada fires, was seen extending from eastern Mexico north through the western Gulf of Mexico and into the Southern Plains extending east through the Gulf Coast states and Southeastern United States and into the western Atlantic Ocean. BLOWING DUST: Tropical Atlantic… A large area of Saharan Dust was observed across most of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean and through the northeastern Caribbean Islands and northeast Caribbean Sea. 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