DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z October 16, 2022
SMOKE: Northwestern U.S./Southern and Western British Columbia/Pacific off the Northwestern U.S. Coast and Southwestern Canadian Coast… The numerous wildfires scattered across the northwestern U.S. and far southern British Columbia continued to burn this morning emitting significant smoke which generally spread off to the west and northwest. The larger surrounding mass of thinner density smoke affected western Oregon, western Washington, southern and southwestern British Columbia, and the Pacific off the coast of the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada. Thicker density smoke was observed spreading to the northwest mainly to the north of Seattle and over the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver. Farther to the south, a swath of thicker smoke was seen moving to the west from the Cedar Creek Fire in west central Oregon. A couple other patches of moderate to thick density smoke were visible moving to the northwest well off the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canadian coastlines. Low cloudiness off the coast though did interfere with additional information on the extent and density of the smoke offshore. Farther inland, a number of much smaller individual smoke plumes were seen with fires in northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, central and northern Idaho, western Montana, and southeastern British Columbia. The smoke across the entire region of the northwestern U.S. and southwestern Canada settled into some of the valley regions overnight. Central and Eastern U.S./Southeastern Canada/Northern Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic off the U.S. East Coast... A large mass of generally thin density smoke covered portions of the central U.S. and much of the eastern and southeastern U.S., along with a sliver of southeastern Canada. The thinner density smoke was also seen over the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic just off the east coast of the U.S. This smoke was likely due to a combination of the continuing wildfire activity in northwestern Canada and daily seasonal/agricultural type fire activity occurring especially in the south central and southeastern U.S. Within this larger area of thin density smoke was a stripe of moderate density smoke which stretched from southern Iowa and northern Missouri to the east and northeast reaching northern Ohio and Lake Erie. Northwestern Canada... A larger wildfire over the southwest portion of the Northwest Territories was producing moderate to thick density smoke which moved off to the west and southwest. Cloudiness in this region did interfere with additional information on the smoke extent. Farther to the south, a wildfire in east central British Columbia was emitting moderate to thick density smoke which moved to the east. Central and Eastern Canada… Significant cloud cover prevented the detection through satellite imagery of any smoke which might be present in this region. 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