DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z July 11, 2022
SMOKE: Alaska, Canada, North Central and Northeastern United States… 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 area 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 across Alaska and northwestern and north central Canada and extending over the Arctic. Thinner density smoke also appeared to spread far enough south to impact portions of the north central and northeastern United States where it eventually mixed with downstream smoke from the larger wildfires in California, Nevada, and Utah. Western and Central United States… Fire activity 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 in east central California. Thin to moderate density smoke from this fire also extended well to the northeast before thinning out over the north central United States. 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 Central Plains. Central and Eastern United States… Very large coverage of thin density smoke with embedded smaller patches of moderate density smoke covered most of the central United States and eastern United States. 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 smoke from the significant wildfire activity in northwestern Canada and Alaska may be occurring especially across the north central and northeastern United States. DUST: Tropical Atlantic and Far Eastern Caribbean... A huge area of Saharan dust was seen extending across the Tropical and Subtropical Atlantic Ocean reaching as far west as the eastern Caribbean Islands and eastern 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