DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z September 4, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/U.S./Mexico/Western Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic Ocean off the U.S. and Canada East Coast... Numerous large wildfires continue to burn especially in portions of British Columbia, northern Alberta, and the southern part of the Northwest Territories which resulted in a sizable swath of moderate to thick density smoke which covered a significant part of southern Canada from British Columbia eastward to Quebec. The thicker smoke then narrowed as it spread to the east and northeast over the Labrador Sea to near southern Greenland. An additional batch of moderate to thick smoke related to the Canadian wildfires was visible over northern Hudson Bay and northern Quebec wrapping around a low pressure circulation. A larger surrounding mass of thin density smoke attributed mainly to the Canadian wildfires was affecting a larger portion of Canada in addition to the central and eastern U.S., the northern and western Atlantic, the western Gulf of Mexico, and much of northern and central Mexico. A couple of patches of embedded moderate density smoke were seen over Missouri and northern Louisiana which are likely related to some recent wildfire activity in eastern and southeastern Texas and Louisiana. DUST: Eastern Caribbean Region/Central and Eastern Atlantic… The majority of Saharan dust continued to be generally confined to the open Atlantic east of the Caribbean region though the far western and very thin density portion of the dust appears to have spread across the eastern Caribbean region possibly including Puerto Rico. JS 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