DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 2330Z August 13, 2026
SMOKE: Northern Canada... Wildfires in the Northwest Territories continued this evening, producing a regional layer of moderate-to-heavy density smoke. Wildfires in southern British Columbia produced moderate-to-heavy density smoke plumes that joined with the fires in the Pacific Northwest of the CONUS. Despite significant cloud cover, moderate density smoke was observed stretching eastward before drifting into the Atlantic Ocean. A cross-polar transport of moderate-to-heavy density smoke from across the Arctic also appears to drift over the Canadian Archipelago and Nunavut before extending westward into the southeastern Northwest Territories, southward into central Canada, and eastward into the Hudson Bay. Another layer of moderate-density smoke, likely cross-polar transport, in the northern Northwest Territories appears to extend westward across Yukon into Alaska. A layer of light-density smoke covered most of northern Canada, extending southward to join the light-density smoke covering CONUS before drifting eastward into the Atlantic Ocean. CONUS/North Atlantic... Wildfires across the Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia continued to produce moderate to thick smoke. A portion of the smoke moved westward out over Puget Sound, southern Victoria Island, and just offshore of Washington State and northern Oregon. In addition to these fires, smoke from wildfires across the interior portions of the PNW and Big Sky country also contributed to the widespread layer of moderate density smoke covering much of northern CONUS and drifted eastward, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Light-density smoke cover most of CONUS before drifting southward into Mexico, eastward into the Atlantic Ocean, and westward into the Pacific Ocean. Fires located in Texas and the Lower Mississippi Valley also contributed smoke plumes of various densities to the regional plume. Mexico/Gulf of America/Pacific Ocean... Light-density smoke was over along the Mexican Gulf Coast, the Bay of Campeche, and the Central Gulf of America, some of which drifted southwestward across southern Mexico into the Pacific Ocean. A region layer of moderate-density smoke was also observed in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec before extending northward into the Bay of Campeche. BLOWING DUST: Caribbean... Light to moderate density Saharan Dust was observed extending as far west as Mexico and the western Gulf Coast. Once the dust layer crosses the Caribbean and enters the Gulf of America and the Yucatan Peninsula, the dust may be mixing with remnant smoke. GL 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