DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z August 25, 2026
SMOKE: Canada... Wildfires in the southwestern and south-central Northwest Territories continued to burn this morning. These fires were observed producing an area of heavy-density smoke plumes that traveled east-southeast into northeastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and northern Manitoba. Despite significant cloud cover, a layer of moderate-density smoke spread southeastward from the Northwest Territories across central Canada, merging with smoke from British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest before traveling eastward further into the Hudson Bay and southward into Midwestern CONUS. A broad layer of light-density smoke covered much of Canada before merging with smoke from CONUS. CONUS/Pacific Ocean/Atlantic Ocean... Wildfires across the Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, continued to produce localized heavy-density smoke plumes. A regional layer of moderate-density smoke extended northward into British Columbia, merging with the light-to-moderate smoke in the region. A broad layer of moderate-density smoke extended eastward across the Northern Plains and the Upper Mississippi Valley before dissipating into lighter smoke over the Great Lakes. A band of moderate-density smoke moved southward over the Mississippi Valley as well as southeastward over the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic states, eventually merging with light-density smoke in the Northeast and Atlantic Ocean. A large layer of light-density smoke covered most of CONUS before drifting eastward into the Atlantic Ocean, southwestward into the Pacific Ocean, northward to join with light-density smoke over Canada, and southward to join with smoke over the Gulf of America, Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Mexico/Gulf of America... A layer of remnant light-density smoke from fires in the Pacific Northwest of CONUS and Canada, as well as industrial activity in Mexico, was observed across Baja California, the Pacific coast of Mexico, the Bay of Campeche and Northern Yucatan, before drifting westward into the Pacific Ocean and eastward across the Gulf and into the Caribbean Sea. BLOWING DUST: Lesser Antilles... Light Saharan dust was observed blowing across the Atlantic Ocean, almost reaching the Lesser Antilles. 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 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