DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z December 28, 2005
Florida: A cluster of fires to the south and southeast of Lake Okeechobee were responsible for an area of smoke which spread to the SSE during the afternoon toward the more populated areas of southeastern Florida including the Fort Lauderdale and Miami metro areas. Moderately dense smoke was fanning out to the north and east of a fire located in the Apalachicola National Forest in Liberty County of the Florida panhandle. The smoke was heading in the general direction of Tallahassee, but had not made it that far to the NE as of sunset. Oklahoma/Texas: A large number of fires fanned by gusty westerly and southwesterly winds and fueled by dry grass and vegetation were detected this afternoon across a wide area extending from central Texas to northeastern Oklahoma. Some of these destructive fires were noted to be quite large in size and were producing locally dense smoke plumes which were being blown rapidly eastward and northeastward. Particularly intense fires with pronounced smoke plumes were observed with fires across Seminole, Garvin, Johnston, Bryan, and Choctaw counties of south central and southern Oklahoma as well as Cooke, Callahan, Eastland, Coleman, and Somervell counties of northern and central Texas. Large hot spots were still detected in GOES Channel 2 imagery well after sunset with the fires over Seminole, Atoka, and Choctaw counties of Oklahoma. Texas: A swath of blowing dust was visible this afternoon extending from a source region in the western Texas panhandle (NW of Midland) to central Texas. The dust cloud was moving eastward and had spread across the region of central Texas which was also affected by the grass fires described in the paragraph above. Colorado/Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas: Another apparent area of blowing dust originated over the high plains of eastern Colorado and spread to the SSE crossing over western Kansas, western Oklahoma, and the northern Texas panhandle. JS