DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z August 14, 2026
SMOKE: Northern Canada... Wildfires in the Northwest Territories continued this morning, 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 CONUS, continuing eastward into southern Alberta before becoming obscured by cloud cover. A cross-polar transport of moderate-to-heavy density smoke from across the Arctic also appeared to drift over the Canadian Archipelago and Nunavut before extending westward into most of the 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 and Yukon appeared to extend westward 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/Atlantic Ocean... Wildfires across the Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia continued to produce moderate density smoke across the region this morning. A layer of heavy-density smoke from these fires extended southward across northern Washington and westward across Vancouver Island into the Pacific Ocean. A portion of medium-density smoke moved westward out over Puget Sound, southern Vancouver Island, and just offshore of Washington State and northern Oregon. A lingering layer of moderate-density smoke was observed stretching from the Upper Mississippi Valley, across the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic states before continuing southward over coastal North Carolina and further east into the Atlantic Ocean. Light-density smoke covered most of CONUS (with the exception of southern California and the southwestern states) before drifting southward from Texas into Mexico, eastward over the Gulf and into the Atlantic Ocean. Mexico/Gulf of America/Pacific Ocean... Light-density smoke was observed over along the Mexican Gulf Coast, Central Mexico, and the 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. Gaskill 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