DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z July 21, 2026
SMOKE: North America/Eastern Pacific/North Atlantic… Wildfires continue to burn primarily across Northwest Territory, the Pacific Northwest, and east-central Saskatchewan. The widespread wildfire activity across the Northwest Territory is producing very thick smoke that extends east-southeast to south-southeast across southern Northwest Territory, far northeastern British Columbia, and the Prairie Provinces. The smoke thins out a little bit as the plume extends into the Upper Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and perhaps into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern CONUS. Lighter smoke extends northeastward from there just offshore of the Maritime Provinces before approaching Greenland and then dropping south. Here, the smoke is more moderate density in nature. The smoke then moves southwest just as the plume reaches west of the Azores and extends southwest all the way to the the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico. Across the Pacific Northwest, Thick smoke is observed across north-central Oregon and central/eastern Washington State, with lighter smoke observed through broken cloud cover over Idaho and western Montana. There is also some thick smoke across southern and central British Columbia and extends southwestward offshore from Victoria Island. The smoke extends from there south along the western coast of North America to Hurricane Fausto in the Eastern Pacific basin and then eastward to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. BLOWING DUST: Caribbean… Saharan dust was observed extending west from the Sahara to the eastern Caribbean. Some may extend a little farther west but is not clear. Hosley 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