DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 16, 2022
SMOKE: CONUS West Coast… Wildfire activity from Northern California into central Oregon continued to produce moderate to thick smoke overnight and into the early morning. Much of the smoke was accumulating in valleys near the Six Rivers Lightning Complex and south across the northern Sacramento Valley. Northwestern U.S./Southwestern and South Central Canada… Wildfires in southeastern British Columbia and central Idaho were also seen continuing to produce moderate to thick smoke this morning. Active smoke in west-central Idaho was moving west while remnant smoke and active emissions from elsewhere in the region was moving east. Eastern and Northern Canada… Remnant smoke from wildfires across the Northwest Territory was seen extending east ans southeast across much of the Northwest Territory, Nunavut, Manitoba, and into eastern Canada, the Great Lakes, and northeastern CONUS. Much of the smoke is light, but thicker smoke is noted across central Northwest Territory into Nunavut, northern Manitoba, and western Hudson Bay. South Central and Southeastern U.S./Northern Gulf of Mexico/Northern Mexico… A large area of remnant thin density smoke was seen stretching from new Mexico out into the Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina, Georgia, and north Florida. The thickest of the remnant smoke resides along the Gulf Coast to off the Atlantic Coast. DUST: Tropical and Subtropical Atlantic/Caribbean Sea/Central America/Mexico/western Gulf of Mexico/Texas… Saharan dust was visible in satellite imagery over the open tropical and subtropical Atlantic with the far western leading edge now just beginning to impact the far eastern Caribbean islands. Dust was aslo observed extending westward through the Caribbean Sea across northern Central America, Mexico, and the western Gulf of Mexico into Texas. Hosley 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