DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 11, 2022
SMOKE: Alaska, Gulf of Alaska, Canada, North Central and Northeastern United States/Atlantic off the Northeast U.S. and Southeastern Canada Coast… 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 Aleutians, some of the Gulf of Alaska, most of Canada with the exception of southwestern Canada and possibly a sliver of far eastern Canada, and extends off the southeast coast of Canada and the Northeastern U.S. 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… 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 in east central California. Thin 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 were emitting localized moderate to thick density smoke which spread to the northeast this morning. In addition, thinner density smoke from these fires likely spread out across the northern and central U.S. where it merged with smoke from the large fire outbreak occurring in northwestern Canada and Alaska. Much of the Lower 48… Very large coverage of mainly thin density smoke was present across the majority of the lower 48 with the exception of some of the northwestern, southwestern, and southeastern U.S. The smoke was likely a mixture of smoke transported long range from the large wildfires burning in Alaska and northwestern Canada and smoke from the larger wildfires in California and Utah. 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 and central Caribbean including Puerto Rico, with the western edge of the dust approaching Hispaniola. 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