DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z June 18, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Atlantic Ocean… Cloudiness has spread over some of the wildfires in various spots across Canada which has affected both fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. This was especially true over western and central Canada. The numerous large wildfires (some of which are still visible in satellite imagery), which have been scattered across portions of the southern half of Canada generally from northern British Columbia and the southwestern part of the Northwest Territories eastward over the southern tier of Canadian provinces to Quebec over the past number of weeks, continued to result in a patches of moderate to thick density smoke which covered parts of Canada. Moderate to thick smoke also spread to the south and southeast from the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes regions to and off the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern U.S. coast. Thinner density smoke from these fires covered a sizable part of the Atlantic reaching as far east as Europe. Embedded relatively smaller areas of moderate to thick density smoke were also seen over the northern Atlantic. In addition, it is likely that the southern portion of the smoke from Canada merged with smoke spreading northward from Mexico somewhere over the south central and southeastern U.S. SMOKE/AEROSOL: South Central/Eastern United States/Western Gulf of Mexico/Mexico/Northwest Central America/Pacific Ocean South of Northwest Central America and Southern Mexico… An area of thin to moderate density smoke from the ongoing widespread seasonal fire activity in Mexico and Central America continues to be seen over most of Mexico, northwestern Central America, most of the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean south of northwest Central America, and some of the southern and southeastern United States. Within this larger area of thinner density smoke were areas of moderate density smoke primarily over various portions of Mexico. The northern portion of the smoke from Mexico likely merged with smoke from the Canadian fires somewhere over the south central and southeastern U.S. Also, it is likely that Some aerosols from industrial activities in Mexico and Central America may also be present with the smoke over this large 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