DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z August 15, 2023
SMOKE: United States/Alaska/Canada/Atlantic Ocean... An exceptionally large area of smoke, emanating from the large wildfires occurring mainly in northeastern and west-central British Columbia, northern Alberta, south-central Northwest Territories, and west-central Quebec, continues to impact significant portions of Canada, the United States, and extending off the east coast of the United States and into the North Atlantic Ocean. Moderate and thick density smoke blanketed a sizable part of western and south-central Canada. The fires in Quebec also produced moderate and thick density smoke moving northeast toward Newfoundland and Labrador. Oregon/Pacific Ocean... A large area of moderate to thick density smoke from the Bedrock wildfire in west central Oregon was seen engulfing most of western Oregon and extending into the Pacific Ocean. The moderate and thick density smoke was mainly expanding in the westward and north direction, towards the Pacific Ocean and Washington respectively. The larger light density smoke was seen extending southward into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of northwest California. DUST: Eastern Caribbean Region and the Atlantic Ocean... A large area of Saharan dust continues to move across the Tropical Atlantic Ocean and has entered into the eastern Caribbean Islands and portions of the eastern Caribbean Sea. 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