DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0124Z August 6, 2023
SMOKE: United States, including Alaska, Canada, Atlantic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean…. Wildfires over Alaska, western Canada, the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. continued to produce a very large area of smoke that extends from Alaska through Yukon and Northwest Territories and over most of Canada. In the U.S. moderate smoke was seen previously over the northern and southeastern U.S as well. Thick smoke is seen extending through the Northwest territories and into northern/central Alberta and Saskatchewan. This smoke is mostly from the Alaska, northern Canada wildfires. Patches of thick density smoke were also observed over northeast Hudson Bay and eastern Nunavut as well as southeast British Columbia. The wildfires in southeast British Columbia producing the patches of thick density smoke likely extended south into the U.S states of Washington and Idaho underneath the cloud cover as well as contributing to the larger area of moderate smoke engulfing Canada and parts of the U.S. Pacific Northwest… Several fires in the region, notably in northern California, western Oregon, central Idaho, and western Montana, were observed to be producing smoke plumes of up to heavy density, although the smoke was remaining localized to the region. Arizona/New Mexico... Numerous wildfires in western Arizona and eastern New Mexico were observed producing moderate to heavy density smoke plumes through the clouds. The smoke was moving northeast as evening approached. DUST: Atlantic Ocean… Moderate to high density Saharan dust continues to progress off the African coast and extends west into the eastern and central Atlantic ocean. The leading edge of this moderate dust has now entered the far eastern Caribbean Sea. Eglin 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