DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 23, 2022
SMOKE: Much of Canada/Central and Eastern United States/Northern Mexico/Atlantic Ocean… Very large coverage of mainly thinner density smoke was again seen this morning across much of Canada with the exceptions of far western Canada, a portion of northwestern Canada, and a part of Hudson Bay along with a sliver of eastern Canada. The smoke also was prevalent over virtually all of the central and eastern U.S. and over a portion of northern Mexico. In addition, the smoke extended offshore of the U.S. and well out across the central and northern Atlantic. A good amount of this smoke was likely from recent significant wildfire activity in central and northwestern Canada though some contribution from a few of the larger wildfires in the western U.S. was likely occurring especially from portions of the western U.S. to the central U.S. Within the larger mass of thin density smoke were embedded patches of moderate density smoke which were seen over Kentucky and Tennessee and over northern Ontario in Canada. Farther to the west, and much closer to some of the recent and currently active wildfires were batches of moderate to thick density smoke which were seen over eastern Alberta and western and central Saskatchewan, and over the southwest part of the Northwest Territories and northwestern Alberta. Idaho/Montana/North Dakota… Thick smoke from the Moose Fire in east central Idaho was seen this morning near and to the southeast of the fire across east central and southeastern Idaho. A stripe of moderate density smoke from this fire also moved off to the east across southern and eastern Montana and over western North Dakota. Utah/Colorado… A leftover patch of moderate density smoke was observed this morning moving to the east across northeastern Utah and northwestern and north central Colorado. This smoke was possibly from a fire which flared up yesterday close to the border area of southwestern Utah and southeastern Nevada. California/Nevada… The Oak Fire in the central Sierras continued to produce significant smoke this morning with moderate to thick density smoke extending mainly to the east and south of the fire. The leading edge of the southward moving thicker smoke was just to the north of the Los Angeles basin while the eastward edge of the thicker smoke was close to the California-Nevada border. Relatively thinner density smoke from this fire spread to the northeast across central and northeastern Nevada and over southern Idaho where it merged with smoke from the Moose Fire. DUST: Tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea… A swath of thin density Saharan dust could be seen over the central and southern Caribbean Sea while a more substantial batch was located well east of the Caribbean region over the open tropical and subtropical Atlantic. 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