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 also goes much higher up in the atmosphere due to the sheer quantity of material and heat. There is significantly less air per volume in the upper atmosphere for the mass of rising dust and ash to dissipate across. So the ash up there dissipates farther and faster before falling than it usually can spread at lower altitudes.