DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z August 8, 2023
SMOKE: United States/Alaska/Canada/Northwestern Atlantic Ocean/Northern and Western Gulf of Mexico/Northern Mexico/Pacific Ocean off the Coast of Baja and California… Major widespread wildfire activity continues especially across western and northwestern Canada along with most of Alaska. Another significant cluster of wildfires was present over west central Quebec to the southeast of Hudson Bay, although cloud cover prevented analysis in these regions. All of these wildfires were primarily responsible for a massive area of smoke which covered much of Canada, the northern half of Alaska, as well as much of the U.S., the western and northern Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, northern Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean along the coast of Baja and California. Within the much larger area of thinner density smoke were thicker batches. The largest of these, attributed to the significant number of wildfires in northwestern Canada and Alaska blankets the northern half of Alaska, through Alberta, southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and into parts of North Dakota and Minnesota. Additional thicker smoke primarily from these fires was seen over southwestern Canada. Moderate smoke extended over northern Alaska, most of of the Northwestern Territories, western and central Canada, and northern half of the U.S. Utah/Colorado/Arizona/New Mexico/Southern Plains... A few wildfires in south central Utah, southwestern Colorado, central and east central Arizona, and west central New Mexico were responsible for some localized thicker smoke near some of these fires. DUST: Central and Eastern Caribbean Region/Atlantic Ocean... The thinner density western portion of an area of Saharan dust made little progress over the past day and is still present over eastern Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the central and eastern Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean just east of the Bahamas. From these locations, the dust extended well to the east across the tropical and subtropical Atlantic to the west coast of Africa. 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