DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0100Z August 24, 2023
SMOKE: United States/Canada/Mexico/Northwestern Atlantic Ocean/Northeastern Pacific Ocean... Smoke from the numerous wildfires burning across western Canada continued to produce a large area of dense to very dense smoke that extended over southern sections of the Northwest Territories, central/northeastern sections of British Columbia, most of western Canada, and northern regions of eastern Canada such as Ontario, Manitoba, and Hudson Bay. This thick smoke also engulfed much of the northwestern U.S and extended through this region into the Pacific Ocean. Additional thick smoke from several large wildfires in Oregon and California also contributed to large area of thick smoke, with the large wildfire near Eureka, California producing a large area of thick smoke plume that extended along the western coast and into the Pacific. Moderate smoke encompassed the same regions while extending a bit further east within Canada. The overall large area of light density smoke from the wildfires in western Canada, Northwest US, northern California extended across Canada, most of the US, northern/central Gulf of Mexico, and northern Mexico. In addition, a large patch of remnant moderate dense smoke was seen over southeastern U.S and northern Gulf of Mexico, likely due to the same large wildfires mentioned in the prior. DUST: Africa/Atlantic Ocean… Saharan dust was observed over the eastern Atlantic Ocean, near Africa and the Iberian Peninsula and stretching and getting lighter around 42W. The heaviest of the dust was near the African coast. An additional east to west elongated area of dust extends westward along the northern South America coast into the southern/eastern Caribbean Sea and upward to in/around 18N in certain areas. 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