DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1645Z July 15, 2023
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Atlantic Ocean/Pacific Ocean/Mexico... Major wildfires continue to burn especially in portion of western and northwestern Canada as well as in southeastern Canada in western Quebec to the southeast of Hudson Bay. A huge area of thin density smoke primarily from the significant wildfires in Canada was seen this morning covering virtually all of Canada and a sizable portion of the U.S. with the possible exception of some of the western U.S. and the eastern and southeastern U.S., and the majority of Mexico and the eastern Pacific off the western coast of Mexico. The smoke also extended well offshore of eastern Canada and the eastern U.S. over the Atlantic and in a narrow ribbon off the western coast of Canada over the northeastern Pacific. Large areas of much thicker smoke were present over much of western and northwestern Canada, as well as some of central and eastern Canada. The batch of thick smoke from the wildfire activity in western and northwestern Canada spread to the southeast and over much of the north central and central U.S. from Montana to the Upper and Middle Mississippi Valley region and western Great Lakes region. DUST: Bay of Campeche/Yucatan Peninsula/Caribbean Region/Bahamas/Western Atlantic Ocean...Leftover thin density Saharan dust was still seen over part of the Bay of Campeche and extending to the west and northwest from there over the Yucatan Peninsula and across much of the Caribbean region including Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. The dust also appeared north of Cuba and Hispaniola and across the Bahamas. Thicker Saharan dust was noted farther to the east over 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