DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z July 12, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Northern Mexico/Atlantic Ocean/Eastern Pacific Ocean... Major wildfires continue to burn across portions of Canada with the most significant concentrations seen in western Quebec to the southeast of Hudson Bay, and in western and northwestern Canada. Thick to very thick smoke is visible this morning covering much of western and northwestern Canada with some of the thicker smoke extending to the south and southeast across the far northern portions of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Farther to the east, cloud cover over portions of Quebec is limiting some information on the extent and density of the smoke in that region through satellite imagery though thicker smoke was noted wrapping around a low pressure system circulation over central and northwestern Quebec and Hudson Bay to north central Canada. A patch of moderate to thick density smoke was also seen over the Atlantic off the coast of southeastern Canada. An area of moderately dense smoke mainly from the Quebec fires also covered some of the central Appalachian region, a good part of the northeastern U.S. and extended offshore from there over the nearby far western Atlantic. The exceptionally large surrounding area of thin density smoke associated mostly with the Canadian wildfires covers a sizable portion of Canada and the U.S. including eastern Alaska, as well as northern Mexico, much of the central and northern Atlantic, and some of the eastern Pacific off the coastal areas of Alaska and western Canada as well as off the coast of southern California and Baja. DUST: Caribbean Region and the Western Atlantic Ocean… An area of thin density Saharan Dust was seen stretching from around the Yucatan Peninsula eastward over the Caribbean Sea, Cuba, the Bahamas, Hispaniola, and near and just north of Puerto Rico. From there the dust became thicker and extended well across the tropical Atlantic. 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