DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0145Z MAY 12, 2006.
Gulf of Mexico/Florida: Smoke from the large number of fires burning across eastern Mexico (especially the Yucatan) as well as Central America and western Cuba has been pushed a bit farther to the south over the central and western Gulf of Mexico as a cold front has moved southward into the Gulf of Mexico. The smoke area is moderately dense to dense along its extent from the southwest Gulf (the Bay of Campeche north to a position just south of Brownsville Texas) east-northeastward across the central Gulf and across central Florida. The smoke is most concentrated between Tampa and Fort Myers. Additionally, large fires centered around the Hendry-Palm Beach-Broward County border region are emitting moderately to locally dense smoke which is moving to the NE or ENE near West Palm Beach and then off the coast into the Atlantic. Texas/Oklahoma: Numerous fires were seen over Texas and Oklahoma this afternoon/evening. A few produced smoke plumes that were thin to moderately dense and were moving to the south and southeast. The fires producing the smoke were in Carter county Oklahoma, San Saba, Blanco, Houston and Tyler counties in Texas. The most dense and longest plume was from the fire in Houston county. North Dakota/South Central Canada: A very large number of fires was seen across this region and numerous smoke plumes were observed. The plumes were mainly thin and fairly short. Oregon/Idaho: A fire in south central Custer county Idaho had a long and narrow smoke plume that was moderately dense extending to the east and nearly reaching to Fremont county. Fires in northern Harney, western Deschutes, southeast Klamath and near the Crook/Wheeler/Grant confluence were producing thin to moderately dense smoke plumes that were mainly drifting to the east. Ruminski