DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0000Z July 22, 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 evening covering virtually all of Canada and most of the U.S. including the eastern half of Alaska, along with the northern half of Mexico, much of the central and northern Atlantic extending to Europe, and some of the Gulf of Alaska, the northeastern Pacific off the southwest coast of Canada, and the far eastern Pacific off the west coast of Mexico and southern California. Within this larger area of thin density smoke were batches of moderate to thick density smoke. Thick to very thick smoke covered a good portion of northwestern, western, and central Canada associated with numerous wildfires in western and northwestern Canada. Some of the moderate to thick smoke from these fires had moved to the southeast and over the the northwestern and north central U.S. from Montana and Wyoming to the Upper Mississippi Valley. Oregon/Northwestern California... A large fire located in southwestern Oregon is producing a smoke plume of moderate to locally thick density smoke which affected southwestern Oregon and Northwestern California. Arizona/New Mexico/Texas… Smoke extent from several fires in southwestern New Mexico, central and southeastern Arizona, and central Texas was difficult to see due to heavy cloud coverage. Idaho/Montana/Wyoming… A large fire in east central Idaho was producing moderate to thick density smoke which moved to the north this morning impacting spots mainly along some of the Montana-Idaho border. A larger detached swath of remnant moderate density smoke from this fire moved to the southeast over the area from central Wyoming to north central Colorado. DUST: Southern Florida/Southeastern Gulf of Mexico/Bahamas/Caribbean Region/Western Atlantic Ocean… The Saharan dust layer continues to gradually shift farther to the west and now covers southern Florida, the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, most of the 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