DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 17, 2022
SMOKE: Much of Canada and the central and eastern CONUS and the Pacific NW... Wildfire activity across Northwest Territory, southeast British Columbia, the Intermountain West, and northern California was helping to create an expansive area of smoke that extends from Northern Canada, northern California, and the BC/MT/ID Rockies to central Canada and northeastern Canada into the Davis Strait. Smoke also is moving across the central and eastern CONUS from this activity, including the Great Plains, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic, the northeast CONUS and Maritime Canada. The thickest smoke resides over northern Canada and downstream from active wildfire activity including eastern Manitoba and around active fire activity in northern California (Six Rivers Lightning Complex) and across central Idaho, western Montana, and southeastern British Columbia. DUST: Tropical and Subtropical Atlantic/Caribbean Sea/Mexico/western Gulf of Mexico… Saharan dust was visible in satellite imagery extending westward from the Sahara to around 48W. A small break is seen before another area of dust is seen extending from northeast of the Leeward Islands southwest across the eastern Caribbean where it gets thinner. The thinner dust then moves westward across the central and northwestern Caribbean and then across the Yucatan and into the Bay of Campeche. 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