DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 17, 2022
SMOKE: Canada/Lower 48/Atlantic Off the Northeast U.S. and Mid-Atlantic Coast/Northern Mexico... The enormous area of thin density smoke continues to be seen today covering virtually all of Canada with the exception of northwestern Canada where cloud cover was significant. The smoke also was spread over much of the lower 48 with the exception of portions of the Southeast and the West. Smoke extended offshore of southeastern Canada as well as offshore of the Northeastern and Middle-Atlantic region of the U.S. over the Atlantic. Finally, some smoke was also appearing across northern Mexico, the Gulf of California, Baja, and over the nearby Pacific. Thicker density smoke was noted generally moving to the east in Canada over northern Saskatchewan, northern and central Manitoba, the eastern half of Ontario, and southern Quebec with the thicker smoke also impacting Lake Superior and some of the upper peninsula of Michigan, northern Lake Huron, and northern New England. The thicker smoke was attributed to a number of larger wildfires burning primarily in northeastern Alberta, northern and central Saskatchewan, and western and central Manitoba in Canada while the larger mass of thinner density smoke was likely from a combination of the larger wildfires in central Canada as well as recent wildfire activity in northwestern Canada and Alaska with smaller and somewhat more localized contributions from a few wildfires in the western U.S. and seasonal fire activity in the south central and southeastern U.S. Pacific Northwest/Southwestern Canada/Pacific Off the Northwest U.S. Coast… Patches of moderate density smoke were seen moving to the north over north central Oregon, central and eastern Washington, and southern British Columbia. Areas of thinner density smoke were also visible moving to the south along and off the coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California over the nearby Pacific. This smoke was believed to be mainly from the recent significant wildfire activity in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Over a number of days, the smoke spread to the south and off the coast of Alaska and western Canada over the Gulf of Alaska and continued south along the west coast of the U.S. with some of the smoke also wrapping back inland over the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada. Alaska/Northwestern Canada... Significant cloud cover again covered a sizable portion of Alaska which is preventing detection of the recent significant wildfires and much of the smoke which had been present there prior to the increase in cloud cover. Only a relatively small swath of remnant thin density smoke was seen this morning across northeastern Alaska and Northwestern Canada. DUST: Tropical Atlantic/Eastern Caribbean… The western portion of a very large area of Saharan dust only made just a little more progress to the west and was still over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the central and eastern Caribbean, and the Atlantic to the east of the Bahamas possibly including the eastern Bahamas. Gulf of Mexico/Texas and Louisiana Coast… The other batch of Saharan dust was located over the far western Gulf of Mexico and likely inland over Texas and Louisiana but was much more difficult to see in satellite imagery over land. 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