DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z May 21, 2006.
Bay of Campeche/Gulf of Mexico: Area of haze/smoke likely originating from fires across southeastern Mexico including the Yucatan Peninsula and portions of Central America blanketed the Bay of Campeche and had moved slowly northward into the west central Gulf of Mexico by sunset. Southern Canada/Northern Plains: Only a few smoke producing fires were visible today from what are believed to be mainly agricultural fires across the Dakotas, Minnesota, and south central Canada. Clouds over a portion of the region were likely preventing additional smoke detection. Georgia/South Carolina: A couple of fires over eastern Georgia were emitting moderately dense smoke plumes which spread quickly eastward fanning out as they moved offshore and out over the Atlantic Ocean. Lower Mississippi Valley/Gulf Coast states: Scattered fires were noted across the region extending from eastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas to the Florida Panhandle with smoke plumes noted from nearly a dozen of them. The fire in the Florida Panhandle county of Liberty was producing a narrow but locally moderately dense smoke plume which moved northeastward and across Tallahassee. A similar smoke plume was observed moving northeastward from a fire northeast of Lake Pontchartrain along the border of St. Tammany Parish Louisiana-Hancock County Mississippi. Northeastern Mexico: Fires located in the mountainous terrain of Mexico south of the big bend region of southwestern Texas were emitting rather large areas of moderately dense to locally dense smoke which were fanning out in several directions. At this time the smoke has not made any significant progress toward southwestern Texas. JS