DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0132Z July 16, 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 eastern of Alaska (western Alaska became cloud covered this evening), some of the Gulf of Alaska, most of Canada with the exception of southwestern Canada and far eastern Canada, this smoke extends into the Central and Eastern United States, The thickest smoke was visible across Alaska and northwestern Canada where moderate to thick smoke was stretching southeast from eastern Alberta to the western edge of Quebec, 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. California... The Washburn Fire in east central California in the central Sierra-Nevada Mountains was responsible for an area of light density smoke extending from the fire to the north and into western Nevada. Smoke may be more prevalent in the southwestern U.S. but cloud cover precluded further analysis. Nevada... In northeastern Nevada a moderate density smoke plume attributed to a wildfire was observed through breaks in the clouds moving northwest into southern Idaho. Oklahoma... In northern Oklahoma a moderate to heavy density smoke plume attributed to a wildfire was observed moving in a northerly direction entering southern Kansas. 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/Eastern Caribbean… The western portion of a very large area of Saharan dust had moved far enough to the west to cover the eastern Caribbean including Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Yucatan Peninsula/Gulf of Mexico… Another batch of Saharan dust was present today over the Yucatan Peninsula, the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche. Eglin 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