DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z July 21, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Atlantic Ocean/Northern Mexico/Pacific Ocean off the U.S. West Coast and West Coast of Mexico… The enormous area of smoke primarily from the Canadian wildfires continues to be seen this morning covering virtually all of Canada and the U.S. including Alaska, along with the northern half of Mexico, much of the central and northern Atlantic, and some of the Gulf of Alaska and the far eastern Pacific off the west coast of Mexico and California. Within this larger area of thin density smoke were batches of moderate to thick density smoke. An area of moderate density smoke were seen stretching from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the northeast over far southeastern Canada and some of the Labrador Sea. Another band of moderate density smoke extended across Wisconsin and lower Michigan. Farther to the west, a large mass of thicker density smoke from the ongoing major wildfires burning in western and northwestern Canada covered a good portion of central, western, and northwestern Canada as well as far northeastern Alaska. Oregon/Northwestern California... A large fire located in southwestern Oregon is producing a smoke plume of moderate to locally thick density which fanned out to the north and south of the fire impacting western Oregon and northwestern California. Leftover detached moderate density smoke from this fire spread to the east across Washington and northern Idaho. Arizona/New Mexico… Several fires in southwestern New Mexico and central and southeastern Arizona were responsible for a broad area of generally thin to moderate density smoke which covered the area from eastern Arizona to south central Colorado and north central New Mexico. Idaho/Montana/Wyoming… A large fire in east central Idaho was producing moderate to thick density smoke in the vicinity of the fire. A larger detached batch of moderate to locally thicker density smoke from this fire spread to the east across south central Montana and north central Wyoming. DUST: Southeastern Gulf of Mexico/Bahamas/Caribbean Region/Western Atlantic Ocean… The Saharan dust layer covers most of the central and eastern Caribbean region including Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, along with the Bahamas, and the Atlantic to the east and northeast of the Bahamas and the Caribbean region. Rodriguez 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