DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0218Z October 17, 2023
SMOKE: Northwestern and North Central Canada… An area of wildfires continues to be detected scattered across portions of British Columbia, Alberta, and the south central part of the Northwest Territories. Most of these wildfires are generally burning at relatively low intensity resulting in a large swath of primarily thin density smoke which extends from northeastern British Columbia and northern Alberta to the northeast and east across the Northwest Territories, southern Nunavut, and ending in the eastern Hudson Bay before becoming obscured by cloud cover. North Dakota/Saskatchewan/Manitoba… Seasonal burning in North Dakota, southern Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba combined with some remnant smoke form the ongoing fires from western Canada created an area of light density smoke around the surrounding area. Some of these fires were producing moderate density smoke plumbs as evening approached. Southeastern/South-Central US/Gulf of Mexico… An area of mostly thin density smoke attributed daily seasonal fire activity primarily over eastern Texas, Louisiana southeastern Missouri, and eastern Arkansas. The smoke was visible extending from eastern Texas eastward through portions of the southeastern U.S. and then it moved south over the Gulf of Mexico. Moderate density smoke was seen over eastern Texas, Louisiana, and southeastern Missouri. A cluster of wildfires along the Gulf Coast in southeastern Texas was releasing moderate smoke that was observed moving south over the Gulf of Mexico. California… A cluster of fires in central California could be seen producing mostly light to moderate density smoke plumes which moved generally towards the northeast. Arizona… A cluster of fires in the northern half of Arizona could be seen producing mostly light to even dense smoke plumes which generally spread around the fires. A new fire in north-central Arizona was beginning to release mostly dense smoke that generally spread around the fire and to the northeast as the evening approached. SMOKE/AEROSOL: Patches of mainly thin density residual smoke and unknown aerosols were present today off the western coast of Mexico over the Pacific Ocean coastline. 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