DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0135Z July 18, 2025
SMOKE: Alaska/Canada/North-Central United States/Atlantic Ocean... Wildfires continued to burn across east-central Alaska, and northwestern and central Canada, with widespread smoke covering northern Alaska, large parts of northwestern and central Canada, the north-central United States, and portions of the North Atlantic Ocean. Areas of higher smoke concentration were observed moving southeastward across the Northwest Territories, northeastern British Columbia, north and central Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. Medium-density smoke also drifted south into Minnesota this evening. Western U.S... More than a dozen wildfires were observed across the western U.S., from Washington State to New Mexico. These wildfires produced locally moderate to heavy density smoke that drifted generally to the northeast, merging with smoke from the Canadian fires. AEROSOL/SMOKE: Mexico/Gulf of America/Pacific Ocean... An area of light to moderate density smoke and aerosols, from fires across the Yucatán and industrial sources was observed over the southern Gulf of America and the Pacific Ocean off Mexico’s southern coastline. DUST: Tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea... An area of Saharan dust was observed over parts of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, expanding west into the Caribbean Sea. YL 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:http://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