DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 9, 2023
SMOKE: United States/Alaska/Canada/ 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. 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., parts of the western Atlantic, the northern Gulf of Mexico, and northern Mexico. 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 blanketed the northern half of Alaska and much of northern Canada. Additional moderate to thick smoke primarily from these fires was seen over the northern half of the U.S. from Montana through the Ohio Valley/Great Lakes region and finally into eastern U.S. Cloud cover over much of the western and southwestern Canada prevented further smoke analysis in these regions. The more dense smoke from the fires in Quebec was confined to western Quebec and far eastern Ontario. Utah/Colorado/Arizona/New Mexico/Southern Plains... Wildfires in southwestern Oregon were producing a moderate to thick density smoke plume which spread to the east and then gradually the wind took the smoke south. 2 wildfires in southwestern Arizona was producing a moderate to thick density smoke plume which spread to the east where it went under cloud cover. A few other wildfires in southwestern Colorado, central and east central Arizona, and west central New Mexico were responsible for some localized thicker smoke closer to these fires. Hawaii… Several wind-fanned fires in central Maui and the northwest part of the Big Island were producing light density smoke plumes which quickly thinned while moving to the west and well off the coast of these islands throughout the day. DUST: Central and Eastern Caribbean Region/Bahamas/Atlantic Ocean... The thinner density western portion of an area of Saharan dust has edged just a little more to the west over the past day and is present over eastern Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean just east of and now including some of the Bahamas. Dust continues to extend east across the tropical and subtropical Atlantic to the west coast of Africa. Later in the day the area became cloud covered precluding further analysis. 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