DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0033Z July 21, 2022
SMOKE: Canada/Most of the Central and Eastern U.S./Atlantic Off the Northeast U.S. and Middle-Atlantic Region and Southeastern Canada Coast/Northern Mexico… The very large mass of thin density smoke which has been seen for many days now covers a good portion of roughly the southern half or so of Canada and much of the lower 48 east of the Rockies. The smoke also extends well off the coast of the Mid-Atlantic region, the northeastern U.S. southeastern Canada, and down over part of northern Mexico. Within this larger mass of thin density smoke were thicker areas including a thicker swath extending from the southeastern Yukon to the southeast to western Alberta. This was associated with a larger wildfire in the southeastern Yukon. Farther to the east, a stripe of moderate smoke was visible across central Saskatchewan from wildfire activity in northeastern and eastern Alberta and northern and central Saskatchewan. A cluster of larger wildfires in eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba were producing a number of very thick smoke plumes today which moved to the east and southeast. A larger area of detached moderate to thick density smoke associated with the larger central Canada wildfires was seen over eastern Manitoba, western and northern Ontario, and southern Hudson Bay. This thicker detached smoke also spread to the south over the eastern Dakotas, western Minnesota, as well as western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. Even farther to the east, leftover mainly moderate swaths of smoke from the Canadian wildfires were noted extending from the Middle-Atlantic coast offshore over the western Atlantic and from New England to the east and southeast and offshore over the western Atlantic. While much of thicker areas described above area associated with the Canadian wildfires, much of the thinner density smoke across the lower 48 was believed to be from a combination of smoke from the ongoing significant central Canada wildfires as well as from earlier wildfires in Alaska and northwestern Canada, and a few wildfires in the western U.S. and south central U.S. Area from Idaho to the Northern and Central Plains… The Moose Fire in east central Idaho was observed producing thick smoke on and off throughout the day that spread out to the east covering much of the northern U.S. where it mixes with some thinner density smoke from the recent and ongoing wildfire activity over Alaska, northwestern, and central Canada Alaska/Northwestern Canada… Again, significant cloud cover over much of Alaska limited satellite detection of any remaining fires and/or smoke which had been impacting the region recently. DUST: Cuba/Gulf of Mexico/Florida/Bahamas… The southwest to northeast elongated possible leftover swath of Saharan dust was still seen today extending from western Cuba and the western Gulf of Mexico, across central and southern Florida and over the Bahamas. 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