DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 13, 2022
SMOKE: 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, eastern Canada with the exception of southwestern Canada and extends off the southeast coast of Canada and the Northeastern U.S. The thickest smoke was visible across Alaska and parts of the Yukon but cloud cover obscured much of the region. Due to weather impact, moderate dense smoke was observed mainly over Nunavut and northeastern Canada, with the smoke being visible over much of the Hudson Bay while extending into the Arctic. Thinner density smoke also appeared to spread far enough south to impact portions of the north central and northeastern United States. California... The Washburn Fire in east central California in the central Sierra-Nevada Mountains was responsible for an area of light to moderate density smoke extending from the fire to the north, with the light density smoke visible over northwestern Nevada and reaching southern most parts of Oregon and Idaho. Central and Eastern United States... Very large coverage of mainly thin density smoke was present across the majority of the Central and Eastern United States The smoke was likely a mixture of seasonal burning and 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 Western Caribbean... A huge area of Saharan dust was seen extending across the Tropical and Subtropical Atlantic Ocean reaching as far west as the western Caribbean including Puerto Rico, with the western edge of the dust approaching Central America where it runs into cloud cover. Nguyen 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