DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1600Z July 24, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Atlantic Ocean/Northern Mexico/Pacific Ocean off the U.S. West Coast and south Mexico/Northern Gulf of Mexico… The enormous area of smoke primarily from the Canadian wildfires continues to be seen covering virtually all of Canada and most of the U.S. including most of Alaska, along with the northern half of Mexico, much of the central and northern Atlantic, and the northeastern Pacific off southern Alaska and northwest coast of Canada. Within this larger area of thin density smoke were batches of moderate to thick density smoke. The thick to very thick smoke that covered eastern Alaska and much of northern Canada within the Northwestern Territories and extending southeast through central Canada and into the Midwestern states of Minnesota and Wisconsin was associated from numerous wildfires in western and northwestern Canada. The moderate smoke from these fires extended from Alaska and Pacific Ocean off of the southern Alaskan coast, through western/central Canada, and moving to the southeast/east where it eventually settled into eastern Canada, where fires in Quebec were previously seen producing localized moderate to thick smoke, but cloud cover precluded today’s analysis in the region. This smoke also extended well over the northwestern and north central U.S., covering much of Mid-west and Mississippi valley region. Pacific Northwest... Several fires located in western Oregon are producing smoke plumes of moderate to localized heavy smoke. One of the fires was seen producing a large moderate smoke plume which extended northeast into western Washington, northern Idaho, and parts of southern British Columbia, while fires in southwestern Oregon was producing a smaller batch of moderate smoke plumes which hover along the border between Oregon and northern California. DUST: 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 the western 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. 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