DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0030Z July 18, 2024
SMOKE: Canada/United States/Pacific Northwest/Pacific Ocean/Atlantic Ocean... A significant amount of mixed density smoke attributed to a combination of seasonal fire activity in the United States and numerous wildfires throughout northern Canada, Washington State, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah continued to be seen throughout today covering an extensive area including northern Canada, the majority of the Continental United States and parts of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Northern Pacific. This mixed density smoke was seen extending east through the entirety of Canada from the Northwest Territories into the Labrador Sea before extending further east into the Northern Atlantic Ocean. Areas of moderate density smoke were seen moving east from the central region of the Northwest Territories into northeast Alberta, reaching central Saskatchewan. Areas of the moderate smoke progressed further south into the U.S., completely covering the northern Central Plains and the Midwest regions with a mass of heavy density smoke seen within the northern Western U.S. region. This heavy density smoke originating from the wildfires present in northern Canada was seen extending east-southeast within the larger area of moderate smoke within Canada, however, the thick smoke remained within the boundaries of the central parts of the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan and northern Alberta. Several wildfires within the Pacific Northwest were seen emitting plumes of moderate to thick density smoke that continues to accumulate into the larger mass of thick density smoke seen moving east-southeast through Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. DUST: A moderate amount of Saharan dust continued to be observed over the Atlantic Ocean with light amounts of Saharan dust seen over the majority of the Caribbean Sea reaching near Puerto Rico. Currier 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