DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 31, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Western Atlantic Ocean/Northern Mexico/Pacific Ocean off the U.S. West Coast/Northern Gulf of Mexico… A very large area of light smoke continues to blanket much of Canada, the CONUS and the North Atlantic. In addition to those locations, the same layer covers portions of Alaska, the Arctic, and the far northeastern Pacific. The parent activity is mainly the ongoing wildfire activity across northwestern and central Canada, with some contributions from a few other isolated wildfires across the western CONUS. The thicker smoke from this activity was seen across the Northwest Territory, southern Nunavut, northern Alberta, northeastern Saskatchewan, much of Manitoba and western Ontario into the Upper Midwest and across the Great Lakes into the Northeastern CONUS and the St. Lawrence River Valley. A large cyclone over eastern Canada is continuing to draw the smoke counter-clockwise around the feature toward the Maritime Provinces. Smoke was also seen across the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Coast extending out over the Atlantic along a front that has acted to concentrate some remnant smoke. Pacific NW… Isolated to scattered wildfire activity was seen across southern BC and western Montana west into Washington and Oregon. The three spots in particular that are producing significant fire: the Bedrock fire in central Oregon, more concentrated activity from central Idaho into western Montana, and southern BC. Moderate to thick smoke from the Bedrock fire is moving off toward the southwest, while smoke from the other two areas is generally moving east-northeastward across Montana and into the Dakotas and into southwestern Alberta. BLOWING DUST… Tropical Atlantic… An area of Saharan Dust was observed between 45W and 50W moving west across the tropical Atlantic. There is perhaps a very thin layer of Saharan Dust that was observed over portions of the Caribbean Sea this morning. Hosley 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