DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1720Z July 17, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Atlantic Ocean... Numerous large wildfires continue to burn especially in portions of western and northwestern Canada as well as in southeastern Canada in western Quebec to the southeast of Hudson Bay. A huge area of thin density smoke primarily from the significant wildfires in Canada was seen covering all of Canada and most of the U.S with the exception of Washington state and portions of the Western U.S. The smoke also extended well offshore of eastern Canada and the eastern U.S. over the Atlantic and northwest into Eastern Alaska. Large areas of much thicker smoke were present over much of western and northwestern Canada, as well as some of central and eastern Canada and the Labrador Sea, though cloud cover over eastern Canada made it difficult to distinguish between moderate and thick density. In addition, the batch of thick smoke from the wildfire activity in western and northwestern Canada extended southeast over much of the north central and eastern U.S. Oregon/Northwestern California... A large fire located in southwestern Oregon is producing a smoke plume ranging from light to moderate density of varying density which is both spreading to the south along and just offshore of the southwestern Oregon and northwestern California coast. DUST: Bay of Campeche/Yucatan Peninsula/Southern Gulf of Mexico/Southern Florida/Caribbean Region/Bahamas/Western Atlantic Ocean… Residual thin density Saharan dust continues to be seen over parts of the Bay of Campeche and extending to the east and northeast from there over the Yucatan Peninsula, the southern Gulf of Mexico, southern Florida, and across much of the Caribbean region including Cuba and Jamaica. The dust also appeared north of Cuba and Hispaniola and across the Bahamas. Significantly thicker Saharan dust was noted farther to the east over the tropical Atlantic. Nguyen 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