Eli5: How is the smoke from the wildfires able to travel so far without disappearing?

Question

(Might be wrong flair) Smoke from smaller campfires, house fires, etc go away after a while. Even though there is so much more smoke from the wildfires, how is it still able to travel across multiple states without going away?

Edit: Dissipate, not dissappear

In: 33

Answer 1

It has dissipated. But there’s just so much of it that the dissipated version is still smellable.

If you see thick smoke it’s because you happen to be downstream from where the wind happens to be pushing it.